La Curiosité du Chat
by KarmaHope
Summary: When both Marinette and Ladybug take a trip to China to visit family at the same time, Adrien finds it to be a coincidence that's impossible to ignore. He's determined to figure out if his suspicions are correct, but what's a cat to do when his curiosity gets him into more trouble than he bargained for? Well, it's complicated - especially where feelings are concerned ...
1. La Coïncidence

**La Curiosité du Chat  
** Chapitre 1: La Coïncidence  
 _KarmaHope_

Her parents surprised her with the announcement the week before school let out for the summer.

"Marinette!" Her mother called, "Can you come downstairs for a minute?"

Marinette looked up from her math homework and glanced at Tikki, who was sitting on her desk as she usually did while Marinette did homework. Tikki shrugged. "Don't ask me," she said. Putting the stylus down, Marinette pushed away from her desk and made her way down the stairs to the bakery.

"What is it, _Maman_?" she asked. At first, she assumed her parents needed help in the bakery, but when neither her mother nor father were in the kitchen, she hesitated. "What's going on?"

"Well," Sabine said, a smile creeping across her face, "I just got off the phone with my sister. She's planning on going to visit _Nǎinai_ this summer, and she asked if we'd like to go with her!"

Marinette's eyes flicked back and forth between her parents. Her mother was beaming, and her father gazed at her mother with a sappy expression. He was obviously happy for her. While Sabine had been born in and grew up in France, Marinette's grandmother had moved back to China with her grandfather after both their children moved out. It had been many years since Sabine had been to see them – and last time, Marinette had been very young, so she had stayed in France with her father.

But this time …

"You mean, we're going to China?" Marinette asked, her eyes widening in shock. This was so much more exciting than being asked to help in the bakery! She'd never been to China, and she was curious about that part of her heritage. She'd been asking to go for years, but it was hard to get away when the bakery needed constant attention.

"I told her we would think about it, but right now it's looking entirely possible. We'll go after school gets out, of course, and we'll probably stay for about a week."

Marinette bounced on the balls of her feet. "Eeee! Yes! I'd love to go!" She closed the gap between herself and her parents and hugged them tightly. "I can't wait to tell Alya!" she exclaimed as soon as they broke apart. She bounced a little more, then ran back up to her room.

" _Tikki!_ " she whisper-shouted as soon as her door was closed, "We're going to China!"

"What, really?" Her kwami asked in disbelief, " _That's_ what your mom wanted to talk to you about?"

"Yeah!" Marinette threw herself into her chair and spun around happily. "I'm so excited! I've never been! Oh shoot," she said, stopping herself. "I need to call Alya!"

"Marinette," Tikki said, but the enthusiastic teenager was already dialing Alya's number. The kwami sighed as Alya picked up on the other end.

"Marinette!" Alya said, easily audible over the cell phone, "What's up?"

"Guess what!" Marinette told her friend.

"I have no idea. Wait, you finally asked Adrien out?"

Marinette laughed through the blush that rose to her cheeks. "N-no," she stammered. "I'm – I'm still working on that."

"Then what is it, girl?"

"I'm going to China for a week this summer!"

"No way! When did you find out?"

"Just now!"

The two girls squealed together for a while, then fell into talking about everything under the sun, as teenage girls are prone to do. Of course, 'everything under the sun' included a suspiciously large amount about Adrien Agreste, but that was also to be expected. When Marinette finally got off the phone, she saw Tikki gazing at her with a concerned expression on her face.

"What?" she asked.

"Marinette, what about Ladybug?" Tikki asked. "If you're gonna be gone for a week, then Ladybug will be as well. What if something happens?"

Marinette bit her lip. In all her excitement, she had completely forgotten about her superhero alter-ego. "I can't tell _Maman_ that I can't go," she said. "That would be _so_ suspicious, and besides, I want to go. Chat can handle himself without me for a week, I'm sure." Sighing, she picked her stylus up again and turned back to her math homework. "I'll warn him about it tonight."

Honestly, she wasn't confident about his ability to handle himself on his own – the one solo mission he'd been on was with the _Dessinateur_ , and even then he'd still had her to back him up, even if he didn't know it. It didn't matter; the fact was, even if he couldn't handle himself on his own, he would have to.

* * *

" _Bonsoir_ , my lady."

Ladybug would recognize that drawl anywhere, and so when she turned away from the Paris skyline, she was unsurprised to see her outrageous flirt of a partner standing behind her. She rolled her eyes as she allowed him to kiss her hand, then yanked it out of his grasp.

"Good evening, Chat," she said with long-suffering sigh. "Nice of you to show up."

"Like a bad penny," Chat Noir assured her, his hands landing on his hips. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. And how is the beautiful Paris tonight?"

"Quiet," Ladybug said, "as usual. You know how it is."

Indeed, it wasn't often that their evening 'patrols' turned into anything more than a leisurely stroll across the rooftops. In the months they had been working together, the Akuma generally made their appearances during daylight hours. It made sense – after all, that was when people often experienced the things that would cause their emotions to go haywire, leaving them susceptible to Hawkmoth's dark butterflies. When they weren't in the middle of a mission, patrolling at night was nearly a pointless endeavor.

But it was such a _superhero_ thing to do. When Marinette had first met Tikki on her fifteenth birthday the summer before and learned of her powers as Ladybug, she had spent hours in both the school and public libraries, reading all the superhero lore she could get her hands on. After all, even though sometimes it wasn't enough, Marinette Dupain-Cheng always tried her best.

It was a trait that had been passed on to Ladybug, although Ladybug's best was _always_ enough. Marinette chocked it up to the enhanced luck that her superhero alter-ego possessed.

"My lady?"

Ladybug blinked. She hadn't realized she'd been staring off into space, and her gaze fell back to the green of her partner's eyes. She smiled brightly. "Sorry," she said, "I just got lost in thought. Let's go!"

Chat Noir grinned that infuriating grin of his – the one she often wanted to simply wipe off his face. "Alright!"

The two took off into the night, dancing from rooftop to rooftop and eventually up the Eiffel Tower. They kept their eyes peeled for trouble, of course, but there was none on that lazy Sunday night. Sprawled out atop the highest platform of the Eiffel Tower, Ladybug felt as if she were on top of the world. Being Ladybug brought with it a load of responsibilities, but nights like this made it all worth it.

Out here, she could forget about Marinette's problems. She could forget about grades and school and Chloe and _Adrien_ – although that was a little more difficult – and just hang out with someone she would call her second-best friend in the world, if only it wouldn't inflate his ego too much. It was already big enough.

Sure, there was Chat's crush on Ladybug to worry about, but she didn't do much worrying. Although his flirting could get out of control, he never pushed her, and he seemed perfectly happy to accept she didn't feel the same way.

"Hey, Chat?"

"What is it, Beautiful?"

Ladybug sighed as she pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the edge of the platform. Leaning on the railing, she took a deep breath of the early summer evening air. "I'm going to be away for a week or so after school ends," she said. "My family is taking a trip, and I can't get out of it."

She felt more than saw Chat's presence beside her, and she jumped. Damn that black costume. "Don't worry," he said cockily. "I can take care of things just fine here, you know."

Ladybug chuckled. "I know," she said, despite her doubts.

Chat Noir was silent for several moments. Ladybug was about to ask what was wrong when he turned so that his back was leaning against the railing and he was somewhat facing her. "Can I ask where the lady is disappearing off to?" he said hesitantly.

She bit her lip and pondered for a minute or two before making her decision. She sighed. What could it hurt? She motioned for Chat to lean closer with a single finger. She knew she was being paranoid, but she couldn't risk Hawkmoth overhearing her somehow. "We're going to China," she whispered. "I have family there, but I've never been." It was more information than she'd ever given him before, but it was so vague she doubted he could guess her identity from it.

"Nice," Chat said, leaning back against the railing but still staying within her personal space. "Do you speak the language? _Wǒ kěyǐ wěisuí dāng fānyì, rúguǒ nǐ yuànyì dehuà._ "

"You speak Chinese?" Ladybug asked, astounded. Chat nodded smugly, and she smiled, shaking her head. "I know a couple words, but I have _no_ idea what you just said."

"I was just saying I could tag along as your translator," he said. "It could be fun! I can see it now – Ladybug and Chat Noir conquer Beijing! First France, then China, and next … the world!" His hand gestures were enthusiastic, and she stifled a laugh at his antics.

"Idiot," Ladybug said, smacking his shoulder. "I actually think I'm looking forward to a week without you. I'll actually get some peace and quiet for once."

Chat's gloved hands flew to his heart. "You wound me, my lady."

She rolled her eyes. "You'll get over it," she said. "Come on, time's almost up. We still have at least a week before I leave – probably two."

"That's just two more weeks for me to mourn your impending departure, but if you insist."

"I do insist. Now come on, you silly kitty. Unless you're planning on jumping down on your own, but you never seem to land on your –"

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in, will ya? I've just got bad luck. Fight me." He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his face into her shoulder, severely diminishing the effect of his words. Deciding not to call him out on it, she wrapped one arm around his waist and gripped him tightly.

"On three, alright? One, two, _three!_ "

And they together they jumped over the edge. Ladybug grabbed him even tighter as she tossed her yoyo, and they swung safely down to the ground. They tumbled head over heels for several feet, and when he ended up on top of her, she pushed at his nose until he stood, that insufferable grin still plastered across his face.

"Until next time," she said.

"I miss you already!" he called out behind her as she sprinted away.

* * *

Waking up for school the next morning was a nightmare and a half, as it usually was after a night out on the town with Chat Noir. It was only Tikki's constant prodding that kept her from falling back asleep after her alarm went off. As it was, she got to school with only minutes to spare, sliding into her seat beside Alya just before the tardy bell rang.

She yawned loudly as she pulled out the material she needed for class, then cushioned her head in her arms atop the desk for a few moments before forcing herself upright once more. Alya looked at her curiously.

"Are you okay, Marinette?"

Marinette nodded, barely stifling another yawn. "I couldn't sleep last night," she said, and it wasn't entirely a lie. She so hated lying to her friend, even if it _was_ necessary.

"Too excited?" Alya asked. "I don't blame you – you're going to China! Have you ever met your grandparents? Once, right?"

"Yeah," she said, "they came to visit when I was really little. I don't really remember them much."

She was looking at Alya, so she completely missed the sharp glance that Adrien shot back at her. When she looked back front, however, she flushed under his inquisitive gaze.

"You're going to China this summer?" he asked. "That's cool."

"I – uh – yeah, it is. I mean, you travel all the time, so it's probably not _that_ impressive, but, uh … eheh. Yeah, I'm excited," she finished in a mumble.

She shifted anxiously under Adrien's gaze. There was something in his eyes that she couldn't identify, but she didn't have the time to work it out before class started. He shook his head as he turned forward, and she heard him mutter something – _Zhè zhǐshì yīgè qiǎohé_ – under his breath. Groaning quietly, she buried her face in her arms once again.

Alya rubbed a comforting hand on her back. "You're getting better," she whispered. "Don't worry too much about it."

Yes, she was definitely looking forward to getting away. Perhaps a week in China would give her time to sort out her feelings for Adrien before they entered _Lyceé_ next year. God, she hoped so.

Miraculously, she didn't fall asleep in class.

* * *

 ** _Author's Note:_**

 _If you follow me on Tumblr, you'll know that this fandom just kinda hit me over the head and dragged me away. I had to write something, and I meant for it to be a oneshot, but we all know I don't do oneshots well ...  
_


	2. Il Ne Peut Pas l'Être

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 02: Il Ne Peut Pas l'Être_  
KarmaHope

* * *

It was just a coincidence.

It's what he had told himself then, and it's what he had continued to tell himself all week. Really, he might have forgotten about the whole incident if it weren't for the fact that _Ladybug_ , Miss 'We-Don't-Share-Anything-About-Ourselves' had actually, for the first time, willingly divulged a piece of personal information to him.

Well, to Chat Noir, at least.

It was pathetic, the way his mind continuously turned back to that moment atop the Eiffel Tower, when she had asked him to lean in close and whispered that precious little nugget of information to him. Goosebumps had swept down his arms beneath his costume as he'd felt her breath ghosting across his ear.

And although Chat was a realist, he was also a dreamer. He _knew_ that she had meant nothing by it, but damn if it hadn't been easy to pretend. It was a vicious, vicious cycle, but one from which he had no intention of breaking.

After all, where would he be without his Lady?

Adrien Agreste sighed loudly as he lay spread-eagled atop the covers of his bed. His alarm had gone off several minutes before, and he should have been excited – it was the last day of school! His last day of _collége_ even! He imagined Nino was just about bouncing off the walls in excitement, but Adrien just couldn't muster the enthusiasm.

Summer sucked. At least when school was in session, he could get out of the house and see his friends every day. At least when school was in session, his schedule _couldn't_ be filled with back-to-back photoshoots and modeling jobs. At least when school was in session, he could go out with the excuse of meeting someone for a school project. At least when school was in session, he didn't have his every move monitored by his father's aides.

But _this_ summer … Adrien grinned. _This_ summer would be different. Oh, it would still suck, but this summer he would have Plagg to keep him company, and he would be able to meet Ladybug in the evenings after everyone else was asleep. He glanced over at the heart-shaped note that had found a permanent place on his bedside table.

It was _so_ easy to pretend.

"China," he said to no one, "she's part Chinese."

"And you're a lovestruck idiot."

Adrien pushed himself up to face his kwami. "You don't understand, Plagg. This is the only thing she's given me! It's a big deal!"

Plagg rolled his eyes. "No, I don't understand. And I don't want to, either," he added, biting into his cheese. "Cheese is so much better." Adrien wrinkled his nose.

"Do you have to be eating that stuff so early?" he complained.

"Hey," the little black cat said, "don't knock it 'til you try it."

Adrien just sighed in defeat as he finally rolled out of bed. He was almost running late for breakfast, and he still had to shower and get dressed. He snagged clothes out of his closet and hurried through the shower in record time. It took a couple minutes of coaxing to get Plagg into his bag, but several promises of stinky cheese later, Adrien made it to breakfast only two minutes late.

He ate quickly, as he usually did. He didn't like spending any more time at the long, elaborate, _empty_ table than necessary. It just served to remind him of the distance between him and his father; of him and everyone in the Agreste Manor; of him and his classmates who lived much simpler lives than he.

What would Ladybug think, if she knew?

He shook the thought out of his head. "Thanks, Natalie," he called as he passed by her office. "I'll see you later!"

"You have a shoot right after school," she reminded him. "Don't be late!"

Adrien sighed, but kept it out of his voice as he said, "I won't!"

And then he was finally out of the manor. He took a deep breath of the summer air, relishing in the feel of the sun on his face. "Okay," he said to no one in particular. "Let's go."

He hated taking the limo to school. It was utterly ostentatious, but he had been grounded for a week earlier this year after his father learned that he had been walking to school instead, with threat of a heavier punishment if he heard that he'd done it again. It all had something to do with 'the family name' or 'the family brand' or 'the protection of assets' or something equally as pretentious. Adrien hated being treated like an object.

The only bright side to taking the limo was that Nino was always standing outside the school waiting for him. The downside to taking the limo was that he wasn't the only one. There was less of a crowd standing out front to see him arrive than there was at the beginning of the year, but there still was a crowd. Thanking his driver, he stepped out of the limo and waved graciously at the few students standing there before heading straight toward Nino.

"Dude!" his friend cried as soon as he was within earshot. "Can you believe it? It's the last day of school – _and_ it's a half-day!"

Adrien couldn't help but smile at his friend's enthusiasm. "I know," he said. "It feels like this week has drawn on forever."

"Right? It must be some law of nature or something – the last week of school is _always_ the longest."

Adrien hummed noncommittally, amused by his friend's antics as they walked into the building. He knew that Nino would understand if he expressed his true feelings about the last day of school, but at the same time he didn't want that kind of pity. So instead he smiled and pretended to be just as enthusiastic as his friend.

It was so easy to pretend.

When he and Nino entered the classroom a few minutes before the bell rang, he was unsurprised to see the table behind theirs still empty – it was rare that Alya and Marinette were in class before them. Adrien sighed as he sat down and put his bag down by his feet. He'd been up late the night before handling an Akuma with Ladybug, and the lack of sleep was now taking its toll. He stifled a yawn as the classroom door opened and his missing classmates walked in.

"I'm just saying, Marinette, you need to do it at some point," Alya was telling her friend.

He watched on, confused, as Marinette glanced up at him and immediately turned away. "Yeah, I know," she told Alya, "and I will. Just … drop it for now, okay?"

The two girls slid into the desk behind him, and although he didn't consider himself a busybody, he couldn't help but eavesdrop on their conversation. It was a terrible, terrible thing to admit, but he had been slightly more intrigued by Marinette since she'd said she would be visiting China the morning after his Lady had told Chat Noir.

It was a ridiculous notion, he knew. Shy, unassuming Marinette, be the confident, sassy Ladybug? It couldn't be. As much as he liked his classmate, the idea was ridiculous. The girl couldn't speak two sentences without tripping over herself.

"You're lucky we're all going to the same _lycée_ next year," Alya said, "otherwise you'd be done. Finished."

"Yes, I know," Marinette said. "Now _please_ drop it."

They fell quiet as the teacher entered the room, but as it was the last day of school, there were no lessons to be taught – not even the mockery of lessons that had taken place earlier in the week. It wasn't long until the classroom was out of order and the students were simply socializing. Some of them would be going to different schools next year for _lycée_ , and so the parting was bittersweet, with classmates promising to see each other over the summer.

"So when are you leaving for China?" It was Nino who asked the question, and Adrien turned to see Marinette's eyes widen in surprise at being addressed before she smiled sheepishly.

"Not next week," she said, "but the week after. Our flight is on Sunday – we're meeting my aunt and my cousins at the airport."

"That's so cool," Nino enthused. "I've never been that far out of the country. Adrien has, though, right?" he asked, prodding Adrien's side.

Adrien rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling very awkward for having been put on the spot. "Yeah," he said, "but I never really get a chance to go out and actually see the country. I'm usually working the whole time."

"W-well," Marinette said, "I can take lots of pictures, if you'd like. I mean, I was planning on taking them anyway but, uhm, if you want to see them, that's, uh, that's really cool."

Adrien studied her for a moment. "Yeah," he said finally. "That would be cool. You're probably going to get a ton of new ideas for your designs, too, right?"

"Uhm … ah … probably? It's going to be so different from Paris."

It would be so easy, Adrien knew. When she'd first mentioned she was going to China, he'd wanted to say that a friend of his – that friend being Ladybug – had told him the night before she was going to China as well. It was innocent enough. If Marinette wasn't Ladybug – and he still didn't think she was – then she would just laugh at the coincidence. If she _was_ Ladybug, though, then he would out himself as Chat Noir, and … he wasn't sure if he wanted to do that.

Wasn't it terrible? He wanted so badly to know who his Lady was, but at the same time didn't want to compromise his own identity. And he … he didn't know if he wanted Marinette to be Ladybug, or Ladybug to be Marinette. Would it mess up the partnership of Ladybug and Chat Noir? Would Marinette be more confident around Adrien if she knew? Or would Ladybug more nervous around Chat?

He couldn't believe how seriously he was thinking about this. He really didn't think Marinette could be Ladybug, but something within him wanted to find out. He _really_ wanted to find out.

But, at the same time, he respected Ladybug above all else. She didn't want her identity to be revealed, and he respected that. He had _closed_ the freakin' _door_ on her when she had transformed back only feet in front of him. And then he had _left_. God, Plagg hadn't left him alone about that for _months_.

Dammit, he had the worst luck! How did he end up in situations like this?

"Adrien?" He looked up to see Marinette looking at him with concerned eyes. "A-are you okay?"

It was only then that he realized that she'd said something, and he smiled wryly. "Sorry, I got lost in thought," he said. "What were you saying?"

"Oh! I – I was only asking if you had any big plans for the summer," she stammered.

Adrien sighed. "Work," he said heavily. "My father's already got a ton of jobs lined up for me. Why?"

"I, uhm, no reason, really. I was just curious." She paused for several long moments, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. "A-actually, I was, uh, just wondering if – if, uhm, you –"

She never got to finish her sentence, as Chloe chose that moment to stride over and sit on the edge of his desk as if it were her throne, admiring her nails smugly. "So, Adrien, are you and your father coming on my family's cruise this year? You totally should – it's gonna be _great_."

Shoot. The cruise. It was a yearly tradition, reaching as far back as Adrien could remember. He remembered being super excited about it every year, because it would be one week he could hang out with people his own age and just not worry about work, for the most part. And although Chloe had changed for the worse over the years, she was still one of his oldest friends. He groaned internally.

"I don't know, Chloe, I've got a lot of work lined up for this summer. You'll have to ask my father."

It was the vaguest answer he had ever given her. The truth was, he didn't _want_ to go this year. He had cooler people to hang out with, like Nino.

And Ladybug, his traitor mind supplied.

Chloe harrumphed. "You've come every year – it won't be the same without you," she said. "I'll make sure your father is convinced." And then she flounced off.

When Adrien turned back to Marinette, he found her looking at something in her hands with a downtrodden expression. "Sorry about that," he said apologetically. "What were you saying?"

She shook her head. "I-it was nothing important. Don't worry about it." She looked up and cracked a small smile. "A-at least it, uh, looks like you won't be working _all_ summer," she said.

He grinned weakly. "I guess so."

"Yo, Marinette! You should totally bring back some of those waving cats with you! Those things are so cool," Nino said, breaking away from his conversation with Alya. Marinette laughed.

"Those are actually Japanese, Nino. But yeah, I'll bring back some souvenirs. I'll see what I can find."

All-too-soon, the half-day was over, and the school year was over, and Adrien had to head to the modeling job Natalie had reminded him about that morning. With any luck, everything would go smoothly and he could be done early.

But he knew by now that that was too much to ask for.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _This chapter got away from me. I had too much fun getting into Adrien's head.  
_

 _Anyway, to answer your questions, what Adrien said in Chinese is the first sentence of this chapter, although he said it in present tense._

 _So, to be honest, I have no clue where this fic is going. It was meant to be a oneshot where Marinette/Ladybug went on a trip and it tipped Adrien/Chat off as to her identity. I didn't plan anything else. So you may be in for a bit of a wild ride._

 _Thank you for all your reviews/faves/follows!_


	3. Le Chat Est un Chien?

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 03: Le Chat Est un Chien?_  
KarmaHope

* * *

It wasn't often that Ladybug resented her duties as Paris's beloved superhero. She loved being able to serve the people of her city, and the adrenaline rush she got from defeating Hawkmoth's Akuma was exhilarating. She loved how she and Chat Noir moved together, predicting one another's actions split seconds before executing them.

Sometimes she wondered how she had been happy living only her mundane civilian life for fifteen years. Since meeting Tikki, she couldn't imagine life without her.

Despite all that, sometimes the Akuma showed up at the _worst_ of times. Caught up in the freedom of summer, Marinette had accidentally left packing for her trip until the last possible minute. She was leaving early the next morning, and her suitcase was still lying empty upon her floor. She had just started gathering the clothes she'd need when Tikki had informed her of an incoming call from Chat Noir.

So here she was, clad in the red and black, facing off with an Akuma-possessed villain who identified herself as Miss Andrist. Dressed in a hot pink catsuit and matching stiletto heels, the woman was already in a heated scuffle with Chat by the time Ladybug arrived on the scene. Unable to believe the fashion disaster before her, Ladybug just blinked for several moments before Chat spotted her.

Her leather-clad partner flipped away from his adversary, accidentally tripping over his tail as he landed beside her. Ladybug automatically reached out and caught him before he hit the ground. "What happened?" she asked, eyeing the woman before her for a few seconds before averting her gaze – that ghastly pink hurt to look at for too long.

"Jilted lover," Chat gasped. "She just found out her fiancé was cheating on her with another woman. Now she's turning all the men she sees into dogs."

Ladybug grimaced, noticing that there was indeed an unusual number of unleashed dogs in the park as she grabbed her yoyo and held it out before her. "Her _fiancé?_ " she asked, "That's terrible!"

"I assure you, my lady," Chat said suavely, a shit-eating grin across his face, "I would never do such a _despicable_ thing."

So distracted was he that he didn't see Miss Andrist sprinting toward him, moving unnaturally well on her six-inch stilettos. Seeing no other choice, Ladybug tackled Chat to the ground, knocking him away from the woman's grasp.

"You can't possibly _believe_ him," Miss Andrist screeched. "That's what they all say! Let me get my hands on him, and I'll show you what a _dog_ your little kitty cat really is!"

"That doesn't even make sense!" Chat griped. He sighed, and soulful green eyes met her own. "Thanks, _ma chienrie_. I'd be in the doghouse if it weren't for you."

"Oh my god," Ladybug said as she scrambled to her feet. "Can it wait? If you haven't noticed, we've got a bit of a situation here!"

"Right," Chat said, leaping up and grabbing his baton. "Let's get this flamingo flamin _gone_."

Ladybug chose to ignore the pun. "Where's the Akuma?"

"In her engagement ring, I think!"

Damn. In all the months she'd been fighting Hawkmoth's puppets, the Akuma had never been in something so small. Ladybug grit her teeth and tossed her yoyo in her hand before throwing it up into the sky. "Lucky Charm!"

She blinked as she caught a pair of … handcuffs? Was this really going to be that easy? She looked over at Miss Andrist, who was completely ignoring her in favor of chasing after Chat. No, the hard part would be catching the woman and actually getting the cuffs around her wrists. It was ridiculous how fast she could move in those stilettos! Marinette could hardly walk in shoes half that height!

Ladybug surveyed her surroundings, but there was nothing save for a few trees, a fountain, a playground, and an unusual number of dogs. Nothing! She looked down frantically as her earrings beeped, beginning their countdown. Wait … her yoyo! She glanced up again and grinned as Chat's silhouette lit up black and red. "Chat!" she cried, throwing her yoyo at him, "Catch!"

Luckily, he caught it without mishap before having to leap away from Miss Andrist's hands once again. When he looked at her questioningly, she jerked her head at the woman in hot pink, holding up the black and red handcuffs. When that conspiratorial smile spread across his face, she knew he understood what she was saying.

They took off in opposite directions, running circles around Miss Andrist until she was entirely tangled up in the yoyo's string. She fell to her knees rather ungracefully, and Ladybug was quick to push her to the ground, straddling her back as she clasped the handcuffs around her wrists. With the woman's hands restrained, Ladybug plucked the engagement ring from her finger and tried to step on it.

"Dammit," she cursed when nothing happened. "I can't break it! It's too small! Chat, use Cataclysm!"

Chat Noir understood her immediately, activating his power as he ran up to her. When he was beside her, Ladybug dropped the ring into his glowing hand. Seconds later, a purple and black butterfly rose from his palm.

Ladybug quickly unwound her yoyo from around Miss Andrist and opened it before she set it spinning. "You tried to do evil, little Akuma," she said, "I cleanse you of that evil!" Catching the dark butterfly, she set a white one free seconds later. "Bye-bye, little butterfly!" she called after it.

She quickly uncuffed the woman who now lay on the ground, no longer dressed in the ridiculous pink catsuit. Her heels had shrunk back down to a much more manageable two inches, although Ladybug noticed _those_ were still hot pink. She simply shook her head.

"Miraculous Cleansing Light!" she cried, tossing the cuffs into the air. They disappeared, and the light swept through the park, returning the men to their proper forms. Some dogs, of course, stayed dogs. She chuckled at that.

Then her earrings beeped again, and she realized in horror that she was down to two dots. She turned to Chat Noir frantically "I have to go –"

She was cut off by the feel of his hand grasping her wrist. "Can I see you tonight? I mean, can we patrol?" he asked with a sense of desperation that she wasn't used to hearing from him.

"I doubt that we really need to," she said. "Why?"

He stepped closer to her and looked at her with _that_ expression, the one that never failed to unnerve her even if she did always brush it off casually. "My lady is leaving me for a week, and I can't say a proper goodbye? That's just cruel," he said.

Ladybug rolled her eyes and pushed his face to the side as she danced out of his arms like she always did. "Fine," she said. "Usual time, usual place. Now I really gotta go. Bye!"

She barely made it to a good hiding spot before she transformed back, and then Marinette ran home. She still had packing to do, after all, and now her time that evening was going to be monopolized by that annoying flirt of a cat.

Oh, why did she have to wait until the last minute? She decided that Chat's luck – or lack thereof – must be wearing off on her.

* * *

Later that night, Ladybug lay atop the roof that had become their unofficial meeting spot, wanting nothing more than to be sleeping. It was nearing ten o' clock, and Marinette had to wake up at three o'clock the next morning in order to catch her flight. Ladybug hoped Chat would understand when this farce of a patrol had to be cut short.

Seriously, that boy. She was only going to be gone for a week, for crying out loud! It wasn't like she was vanishing off the face of the earth, either – she'd even told him where she was going, something she still regretted sometimes in her moments of self-doubt.

Well, it was too late now. A familiar pair of tinted green eyes pushed into her line of sight, along with a mop of tousled blond hair and that infuriating grin that never failed to get her to roll her eyes. She did so now.

"Hi, Chat," she said, looking up at where he leaned over her. "Long time no see."

"It's been mere hours, my lady, and yet my heart still yearns for your presence." Chat Noir plopped down beside her, all elbows and knees and gangly teenage boy, and yet somehow maintained the grace of his namesake. She didn't know how he did it, and decided she never would. Seconds later, she realized that he had continued talking and she hadn't heard a word of it.

"Sorry, can you repeat that? I wasn't paying attention."

This time, it was Chat's turn to roll his eyes. "I don't know how you fight Akuma when you're spacing out all the time," he said. "Anyway, I got you something."

Ladybug sat up in a flash, propping herself up on her elbows. "You did _what?_ " she asked in disbelief.

"I have to repeat it for a _third_ time? I _said_ , I got you something. I thought it might help," he said, pulling a rectangular object out from behind his back.

Ladybug stared at the small, _wrapped_ parcel he held before him. In the dark, she should make out that the paper was lime green, a few shades lighter than the color she had come to associate with him, and it was tied with a black ribbon that had been knotted in a perfect bow on top. Gaping in disbelief, she shifted all her weight to one elbow and cautiously extended her other arm to take the gift.

"I thought about using black paper and green ribbon," Chat said offhandedly as she sat up properly, "but I realized that you might actually want to _see_ it in the dark."

"Well, thanks, Chat," she said in confusion as she could still only stare at the object in her hands.

"Don't thank me yet, _ma cherie_ – you haven't even opened it yet!"

Right. She supposed she should probably do that. Ignoring the rebellious _thump_ of her heart at the endearment, she pulled at one of the trailing ends of the ribbon. To her relief, the bow was only tied once, so it came apart easily. She tossed the ribbon at her partner, laughing as he batted uselessly at it while trying to catch it. He really was such a cat sometimes.

She was just as careful as she pulled the paper from around the object, opening it along the taped seams rather than tearing the paper into shreds. She then balled the paper up and threw that at Chat Noir as well, only to receive an indignant, "Hey!"

Ladybug stuck her tongue out at him and looked down at the book in her hands – for it _was_ a book. She had a hard time making out the title in the dark, but gasped as soon as she did. It was a French-Chinese phrasebook, 'complete with pronunciation guide.'

"Chat," she said, glancing up at her partner, who was looking uncharacteristically nervous, "This is great! Oh my god." If she was being honest with herself, she didn't really need one – her mother was fluent and would be with her most of the time – but she was touched by Chat's thoughtfulness. Maybe there _was_ something beneath all his bravado.

"I mean, I just thought if I couldn't tag along as your translator, this would do instead – wait, really?"

Ladybug laughed. "Yes, really, you silly kitty! Come here," she said, drawing him in for a quick hug. "I'll make sure to put this in my suitcase as soon as I get back."

Chat jumped to his feet, punching his fists into the air. "Yesss!" he crowed. "Success!"

She laughed, standing as well. "Speaking of gifts, is there anything you'd like as a souvenir? I meant to ask you earlier, but completely forgot."

Her partner paused, his back turned to her as he thought. "I thought you'd never ask. Can you … can you bring me back one of those waving cats? They're supposed to be good luck, right?"

Ladybug barely stifled a chuckle. "What is it with people thinking those things are Chinese?" she asked no one in particular. She didn't notice the stiffening in Chat's spine. "Those are Japanese, Chat, not Chinese. But … I suppose you need all the extra luck you can get."

Chat Noir turned back to her slowly and laughed, a wide grin plastered to his face. "I'll take whatever, then. As long as my lady is thinking of me, I'm happy."

* * *

They stayed on the roof talking about random things for a bit longer before it was Chat – not her – who begged off. That was unusual, and she found it strange, but she didn't think much of it. She really needed the few hours of sleep she could get, and so she wasn't about to complain. Racing back across the rooftops of Paris, she dropped into her room via the rooftop hatch and transformed back into Marinette.

Turning on the small lamp on her desk – both her parents were sound asleep, so she didn't have to worry about them seeing the light – she leafed through the phrasebook Chat had given her. The slightly bitter part of her wished that it had been Adrien who had thought to do something like this for her, but she pushed that aside in favor of appreciating her partner, who actually had. Chat really could be an awesome friend, when he got his head out of the clouds.

She was about to toss it in her suitcase and fall into her bed when she saw the dark markings that didn't look like the printed text. Holding the book closer to the light, she opened it once again. What she saw there, scrawled on the blank cardstock of the inside cover in permanent marker, made her smile.

 _For my lady, because I can't be there to translate in person._ Bon voyage! Tu me manques! _– CN_

"Oh, Tikki," she sighed as she turned the light off, slid the phrasebook into her suitcase, and crossed the room to her bed, "what am I supposed to do with him?"

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _'_ Ma chérie _' translates to 'my dear' or 'my sweetheart.' '_ Le chien _' is French for dog. So when Chat says '_ ma chienrie _,' he's making a terrible French pun. I'm so sorry.  
_

 _'_ Tu me manques _' is the French phrase for 'I miss you,' even if it translates literally to 'you miss me.' Don't ask me why, I don't know. '_ Bon voyage _,' as you probably know, means 'have a safe/good trip.'_

 _If you ever find an error in my French, please tell me. I haven't exercised my limited knowledge of this language in over three years. There will be mistakes._

 _Thank you so much for all your faves/follows! I've never had a story gain this many so quickly. If y'all could drop a couple lines for me in a review if you have the time, I would really appreciate it. The feedback is one of the only reasons I've written so many chapters in a relatively short timespan ... the other being that I can't stop!_


	4. Il Mets Les Pièces Ensemble

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 04: Il Mets Les Pièces Ensemble_  
KarmaHope

* * *

Well.

Pardon his French, but _fuck_.

Adrien had never been hit by an express train before, but he imagined the resultant feeling would be somewhat similar to what he was experiencing now. The wind had been knocked out of his lungs; the glancing blow disorienting him, sending him spiraling off the tracks. See, the thing about being hit by an express train is that it doesn't matter if you know it's coming or not. It doesn't matter if you think you're prepared. No matter how much you try to brace yourself for the blow, it still hurts like a mother.

No matter how much you anticipate the collision, you're still left wondering what the hell just happened.

So what the hell had just happened?

Three days later, Adrien still wasn't entirely sure.

Ladybug's words echoed in his mind, which wasn't an uncommon occurrence. He often daydreamed back to instances where she said something particularly witty or flirty or … anything, really. It was kind of pathetic sometimes. What threw him for a loop this time was the fact that her words were joined by those of Marinette Cheng, a girl to whom he had never really paid much lingering attention.

"Those are actually Japanese, Nino," Marinette had said.

"What is it with people thinking those things are Chinese? Those are Japanese, Chat, not Chinese," Ladybug had informed him about a week later.

The phrases had been different, but the idea the same. The time that had passed since their utterance blurred his memories, but looking back on it, he could not find a single difference between the inflection and tone with which each sentence had been delivered.

It was driving him crazy.

Was Marinette Ladybug?

Was Ladybug Marinette?

Had his Lady been sitting behind him all year, with him none the wiser? He groaned loudly at the thought.

"Stop thinking so hard," Plagg snapped gruffly from across the room, "you're giving _me_ a headache."

"But what if it _is_ her?" Adrien asked for what must have been the billionth time in the last three days. "What do I do?"

"You eat cheese and forget the whole matter, that's what," Plagg said. "Ladybug doesn't want her identity known. You shouldn't go trying to blow her cover for the sake of a _crush_." He spat the last word like it was something dirty, and Adrien sighed.

It was a rare spot of wisdom from the irritable kwami, and even Adrien couldn't argue with the logic in his words. He _knew_ that he should leave it well enough alone. What he had right now was circumstantial evidence; nothing concrete. He could turn away now and live his life none the wiser. He could keep Ladybug's trust. He could pretend he had never come so close to discovering the truth she so desperately wanted to stay hidden.

But curiosity had killed the cat, and was already looking for its next victim.

"This is _your_ fault," Adrien grumbled to Plagg. His behavior had become so much more … _catlike_ since the kwami had entered his life. Before that one fateful, random Tuesday afternoon, he had never been so graceful. He had never had such a problem keeping his nose out of other people's business. He had never had such a taste for fish, either, come to think of it.

"Mmmhmn, sure, if that makes you feel better."

Adrien heaved a sigh as he stared out his window at the darkened sky. He should be patrolling with Ladybug right now, but of course, she wasn't here. He didn't have the energy or the drive to go out patrolling alone, especially after a long day of photoshoots, so he trusted Paris could take care of herself for the night. Just as he had last night. And the night before that.

A week earlier, he would have never thought that he'd be grateful for Ladybug's absence, but here he was, exactly that. He needed time. He needed time away from her to get his scattered thoughts back in order.

It was like herding cats.

Because, just assuming for a moment that Ladybug and Marinette _were_ one and the same, what would that mean?

Would his crush on Ladybug extend to Marinette? Would his crush on Ladybug fade instead?

He shoved his hands into his hair and tugged, the sensation helping to center himself again. He couldn't imagine _not_ being in love with Ladybug, but he didn't even know Marinette well enough to make a decision. She seemed nice enough, sure, and she was kinda cute. They shared a lot of the same friends, and he definitely admired her for her willingness to be kind to and get along with everyone, but was that enough?

It was weird, thinking about his classmate and sort-of friend with the same potential that had previously been reserved for Ladybug and Ladybug alone.

Although, if he was being honest with himself, while he had never paid _much_ lingering attention to Marinette Dupain-Cheng, she had – inadvertently – captured more of his attention than any other girl besides Ladybug had. More even than Chloé, his childhood friend. Heck, the few hours he had been led to believe that Chloé might have been Ladybug had been the most panicked few hours of his life. He had been _so_ relieved to discover that wasn't the case.

Actually … wasn't that the mission where he had first interacted with Marinette as Chat Noir? He shook his head. It was, but now he was just getting distracted

He wasn't nearly as panicked at the thought of Marinette being Ladybug. Okay, he was still panicked, but it wasn't a _dread_ sort of panicked as it had been with the Chloé scare. It was more of a _how-do-I-handle-this_ sort of panicked. Because, the more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn't _mind_ the thought of Marinette and Ladybug being the same person.

But again, the problem was that he didn't know Marinette very well.

It was rare that he was able to hold a conversation with her for very long before she excused herself for some reason or another. It was even rarer to hold a conversation with her in which she didn't stumble over her words. Granted, that tic of hers was kind of cute, but it made getting to know her hard. She was perfectly willing to get along with everyone in their class; why was he any different?

He sighed. It was easy to see what he needed to do. He needed to get closer to Marinette as Adrien, because getting closer to Ladybug as Chat Noir was nearly a lost cause. Nearly, because he had seen the smile on her face when he gave her his gift.

But how could Adrien get closer to her when his very presence made her uncomfortable? Besides, Adrien Agreste had no excuse to be visiting her over the summer. He would have to wait until school started again.

Chat, though …

Adrien's thoughts drifted back to that one mission. The _Dessinateur_ , it had been. That one mission where he, as Chat, had cooperated with an extremely competent Marinette to save Nathanaël from the Akuma possessing him. Now, thinking back on that night, Adrien was even more convinced of Ladybug's identity as Marinette.

That night, Marinette had been smart, sassy, and in control. She hadn't freaked out at the idea of an Akuma-possessed villain pursuing her. She hadn't even been _surprised_. She had come up with a plan. She had rescued them from the box the _Dessinateur_ had drawn over them. Chat had unconsciously grabbed her as close as he would have Ladybug. She had pushed him away just as deftly.

He had completely forgotten about all that, but it suddenly came rushing back. More so than ever, despite the seeming improbability, he suspected Marinette was indeed Ladybug. And then … he knew what he had to do. A plan began to form in his head.

"Oh no," Plagg said. "I know that look. You have an idea."

"I can't go see her as myself this summer," Adrien said. "That would be weird. But if I _accidentally_ run into her as Chat, well … that would be okay, right?"

Plagg sighed. "Do what you like," he said. "It's your own grave you're digging."

But at this point, Adrien was committed. He would not give up on his Ladybug, and if that meant getting closer to Marinette, so be it.

He groaned, crossed the room to his bed, and flopped down upon it. Why did he have to have the worst luck? It was all Plagg's fault. He never had these problems until the kwami came into his life.

And the worst part about it all?

He knew he was only getting himself into trouble.

* * *

Adrien's chauffeur didn't so much as blink at his requests to take the route home that took them past the Dupain-Cheng bakery that week. _CLOSED – on holiday_ , read the sign posted to the front door. That sign taunted him for days.

But then, on Monday, the sign was gone and the lights were on inside. It seemed that Marinette was back from China, and Adrien took a deep breath as he felt an icy grip around his heart. If he saw Ladybug tonight, would that confirm his suspicions? Was that enough to solidify the evidence? He swallowed hard. He supposed he would find out.

He thought he had reconciled himself to his plan. He thought he had reconciled himself to the fact that Marinette was likely Ladybug. He thought he would be able to handle this situation with all the skill and poise he possessed as both a model and a catlike superhero.

He had thought wrong.

Ladybug called him that night, and even as he transformed his heart beat faster with something more than the usual adrenaline that being Chat Noir flooded his system with. He jumped up and down on his toes in his bedroom, trying to psych himself up. He could do this. He could _do_ this.

Who was he kidding? He couldn't do this. One wrong step – one slip of the tongue – and everything that he had been working towards for nearly a year now would be dashed to pieces. Ladybug _could not_ know that he knew her identity. Her secrecy was something very precious to her, and breaching that would be an unforgivable offense.

Guilt consumed him. He'd already breached it, and for what? A pattering heart, nerves on edge, and sweaty palms. Possibly a broken friendship or two, if one still considered Ladybug and Marinette to be separate people.

Taking one last steadying breath, Chat Noir jumped from Adrien's window and began the familiar run through the city. With his thoughts elsewhere, he nearly slipped several times. Only his quick reflexes kept him from plummeting into the streets.

He dropped onto their usual roof minutes later, his nerves frazzled. The sight of the familiar black-and-red silhouette gazing out over the lights of Paris set his heart beating even faster, and for the first time, Chat Noir felt nervous around his Lady. When she turned, he nearly jumped before schooling his expression into something more Chat-like.

"Good evening, my lady," he said smoothly, thankful for the fact he rarely tripped over his tongue as often as he did his feet. "It is so wonderful to see your smiling face once again."

Ladybug laughed and rolled her eyes. "You're still as insufferable as ever, I see."

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," Chat quipped back. "Admit it – you missed me."

"Okay, fine," she sighed. "I missed you as much as I did everyone else. Happy?"

Everyone else. He assumed she meant Alya, Mylène, Nino … and Adrien? He could only hope. "Yes, my lady," he said. "Extremely."

Ladybug smiled. "Oh!" she exclaimed after a moment, "Silly me. I nearly forgot!" She grabbed at a small purse he hadn't noticed hanging at her side. Rummaging inside it for a few seconds, she extracted what looked to be a cloth-covered object. She grinned as she held it out to him. "I didn't have any wrapping paper," she said sheepishly.

The fabric was red with spots hand-drawn in black marker. It was gathered at the top and tied off with a black string. Chat took it from her eagerly. "What is it?" he asked.

"Silly kitty," Ladybug said. "You have to open it to find out!"

He was already pulling at the ribbon as she spoke, and when the fabric fell away from the object, he gasped. "But I thought you said –"

"That they're not Chinese? Yeah, I did. And they aren't. But you _do_ also need all the luck you can get."

A small golden cat stared up at him, its raised paw taunting him as it rocked back and forth. "Wha – but … how?"

Ladybug shrugged, a sheepish smile on her face. "I may have ordered it online and had it delivered back here. I hope you don't mind. I did actually bring you a real souvenir, though!" She searched her bag a little more, but Chat wasn't paying attention.

She had gone through all the extra effort to get him a lucky cat just because he had mentioned it? Even though it wasn't Chinese? All his doubts from earlier were cast from his mind as his heart leapt at the attention from his Ladybug. It was the most he had ever gotten, after her telling him about China in the first place, and he reveled in it.

"Chat! Are you even listening to me?" Ladybug asked, drawing him back down to Earth.

"Yes, of course, my lady," he said, looking up from the golden cat which was now his most prized possession. He was shocked to find her holding something else out to him. Examining it closer, he found that it was an intricate green knot and tassel, about the size of a keychain. He took it gently on one claw.

"I thought maybe you could attach it to your baton," Ladybug said, "or something. It didn't feel right to just get you the cat when it wasn't even from China."

Chat was touched. He didn't actually have a spot that he could attach it to on his baton, but he would make one. "Thank you, Ladybug. I love it. I love them both." _I love_ you _, but I'm still trying to figure that one out._

"It was the least I could do for my best friend." She stepped closer and nudged his shoulder as she spoke, and inside, Chat was freaking out. "I would ask if you wanted to patrol tonight, but you should probably go put those somewhere safe. You don't want to –"

 _Clang_.

"– drop it."

Chat cursed. In his Ladybug-induced distraction, he had lost his grip on the lucky cat and it had tumbled from his hand to the roof. He was quick to pick it up again, checking the damage. It still beckoned at him just fine, but one of its ears was now scuffed and dented. He laughed. "I guess its luck hasn't worn off on me yet!"

"I guess not," Ladybug giggled. "Why don't you go put it somewhere safe?"

"Good idea. Stay here?" Chat asked, "I won't be long. We can go patrol afterward."

She shook her head patiently. "Fine," she said, making her way to the edge of the roof. "I'll be right here."

And then Chat was off. As he ran back to the Agreste Manor, he marveled at his acting skills. But was all of it really acting? He couldn't tell. For those few minutes, he had been just as comfortable with Ladybug as he had ever been. Looking back on it now though, he could see Marinette's kindness showing itself in Ladybug.

If she was indeed Ladybug, and Chat was nearly ninety-nine percent sure she was.

A new idea dawned. He needed to get into her room, either as Chat or as Adrien, and see if he could find the phrasebook he had given her. _That_ would confirm her identity for sure.

He knew it was creepy. He knew it was stalkerish. He knew that he shouldn't be going behind her back like this. He knew.

But he was in too deep to turn back now.

* * *

 _ **Author's** **Note:**_

 _This chapter was a bitch to write. Even now I'm not sure I got Adrien's/Chat's thoughts right ..._

 _I hope all of you in America had a good Thanksgiving. I actually flew back home, so that threw me off my groove for a bit.  
_

 _Regarding this story. I'm sorry I'm not a very romantic writer, but I'm trying. This story will get there; I just feel like I need more buildup. Thank you for all the follows, faves, and reviews - they're what keep me writing!_


	5. Un Réunion d'Avantage

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 05: Un Réunion d'Avantage_  
KarmaHope

* * *

The morning dawned bright and early a week after she returned from China, the sunlight streaming through the windows carrying with it no sign of what was brewing on the horizon. In fact, the amount of light was all too cheery for sleepy Marinette, and so the unassuming teenager buried her face even deeper into her pillow as she tried to block it all out.

It was just too early.

She could no longer justify to herself that her sleepiness was due to the last remaining vestiges of jetlag. After all, she had been back for a week already. No, her exhaustion was due to the fact she had stayed up too late patrolling with Chat Noir the night before. It had been three o'clock in the morning before she had finally stumbled onto her balcony and down through the skylight.

Marinette had not anticipated just how much the freedom of summer would affect the amount of time she spent as Ladybug.

When she had first met Tikki the year before, there had been but a few weeks left of summer before school started. Unsure of herself and still trying to figure out her powers, Marinette had not felt the rush of enjoyment that being Ladybug brought her today. Terrified that her parents would come up to her room and find her missing, she had only spent an hour or two as her alter ego each evening. After she got the basics figured out, and even after she started fighting akuma, she still felt no need to hold her transformation for much longer than necessary. It got boring after a while with nothing to do.

That changed when she met Chat Noir. With him, she had a companion to share the superhero-ing with. Dead silence filled with playful banter and terrible puns, and suddenly being Ladybug became more _fun_ than _work_. But then school started, and they had to be mindful of the times they needed to wake up in the morning.

But now it was summer once again. She and Chat were no longer simply companions, but rather friends, she liked to think, and she had come into her own as Ladybug. With no school to worry about, their patrols stretched far longer than usual.

Marinette groaned into her pillow. "What time is it, Tikki?" she mumbled, unwilling to even move so far as to see her clock.

Her kwami yawned despite the fact she was usually an early riser. "It's ten o'clock," she said, floating so she could read the numbers. "You should probably get up soon, Mari."

"Gimme ten more minutes," Marinette replied. "I don' wanna get up yet."

Tikki settled back in beside her. "Sounds good to me," she said.

It was ten-thirty before Marinette finally worked up the energy to drag herself out of bed. Moments after her bare feet touched the floor, there was a knocking at the trapdoor to her room.

"Marinette, are you awake?" Her mother's voice drifted into her room, and she smiled.

"I'm up, _Maman_! I'll be down in a minute."

"Okay, _ma chère_. I just don't want you to sleep the day away!"

Marinette laughed. "I won't!" she called back, then listened to the fading footsteps as her mother descended the stairs.

Tossing herself into her desk chair, the teenager sighed. "I've got to talk to Chat about this," she said to Tikki. "I've done so well with keeping this secret from my parents. I don't need them asking questions about why I'm sleeping until noon every day when I'm going to bed at the same time I always have."

"It's only ten-thirty, though," Tikki pointed out, and Marinette smiled.

"You know what I mean."

She had finally unpacked from her trip a few days earlier, but her room was still a mess from the ordeal; she hadn't yet gotten around to putting everything in its place. The phrasebook Chat gave her was tossed haphazardly upon her desk, and she picked it up, thumbing through it backwards until she came to the inscription he wrote upon the inside cover in elegant script.

She tried to play it off the best she could, but the fact was, she _had_ missed Chat while she was away. Heck, she had even caught herself making terrible puns with her little cousins – not that she would _ever_ tell him that.

But since she had returned, things had been … _different_ between them. She couldn't put her finger on it, though. They were still great friends, they still worked in their usual sync, and he still flirted with her in their free moments, but … but …

It felt almost as if he didn't _mean_ it anymore. As if he was flirting with her because it was just something he _did_ , and not particularly because he _wanted_ to. She didn't know how to explain it otherwise, and it frustrated her to no end.

She tossed the phrasebook aside and then, thinking better of it, tucked it inside her desk drawer. She wasn't about to let it bother her. After all, it was a good thing that he had stopped flirting with her.

Wasn't it?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts as she stood. "I must be losing my mind, Tikki," she said, knowing her kwami would know what she was referring to. "There's no other explanation."

Tikki giggled. "It's only natural to dislike change," she said. "I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"I had a week away from everything to try to figure it out," Marinette sighed, "and I think I just made everything more difficult."

"Marinette?" Her mother's voice.

"Coming, _Maman!_ "

Throwing on some real clothes, Marinette dashed downstairs, leaving thoughts of blond-haired, green-eyed cats behind.

* * *

While Marinette didn't hate register duty, there were several other jobs around the bakery that she enjoyed more. With both her mother and father busy in the kitchen, however, it couldn't be helped. She smiled as she sent another satisfied customer on his way, but when someone new entered the bakery, her smile turned into a grin as she recognized her best friend.

"Alya!" she exclaimed. "You didn't tell me you were coming!"

Alya rolled her eyes. "I tried to text you, dummy, but you must not have your phone on you."

Marinette froze as she realized exactly where her phone was – still attached to its charger on her desk upstairs. She blushed sheepishly. "Uhh … yeah. Sorry about that."

"It's fine, Mari. I know how scatterbrained you are sometimes … oh, hi Mrs. Cheng!"

Marinette turned to see her mother exiting the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. "Hello Alya," she said. "I imagine you're wanting to steal Marinette away from us for a little while, right?"

Alya smiled. "If that's okay with you," she said.

Marinette looked at her mother hopefully, and the older woman smiled as she sighed. "I suppose that would be all right," she said. "We've passed the big rush, so Tom and I can handle it from here. Go have fun."

"Thanks, Mrs. Cheng!" Alya exclaimed. "Come on, Marinette! It's really nice out today! I'll race you to the park!"

"Hey – wait –" Marinette protested as she struggled to remove her apron. "Wait up! Alya!"

She arrived at the park a few minutes later, panting but not quite out of breath thanks to the stamina she had gained as Ladybug. "That's – not – fair," she said as she plopped down on the park bench beside her friend. "You _knew_ I had to take that apron off!"

Alya just shrugged. "You snooze, you lose," she said, pushing Marinette playfully. The other girl just groaned.

"I wasn't exactly _snoozing_ ," she said. "You just cheated.

"Semantics. Anyway, when am I going to get my souvenir from China? It's been a week!"

Marinette sighed. "I told you, I want to wait until school begins again. Then I can give everyone theirs at the same time."

"But I'm here _now_ ," Alya said, a joking whine to her voice

"Yeah, but …"

"But what?"

"But if I give them all out at the same time, then it'll be easier to give Adrien his," Marinette mumbled quickly. "Please, Alya."

"Well, if it's for _Adrien_ , I suppose I can't say no."

Marinette smiled. "You're the best, Alya."

"I know."

It was a bright summer day, almost uncomfortably warm but for the cool breeze that blew through every few minutes. Summer had always been her favorite season; it was a sentiment that had only been increased tenfold since becoming Ladybug. Marinette sighed in satisfaction as they took a seat on one of the park benches. The next one over was occupied by a boy toying moodily with a pencil, but they hardly noticed him.

"So what's up, Alya?" she asked.

"What do you mean, 'What's up'? Aren't I allowed to just hang out with my best friend?"

Marinette rolled her eyes. " _Something_ must have happened for you to drag me out here like this – not that I don't appreciate it!"

Alya laughed. "Well, you're right, of course," she said. She turned toward her friend eagerly. "I wanted to run an idea by you. I was thinking of having a party sometime this summer. We can invite everyone from our class, except maybe Chloe. Sort of as a belated 'end-of-school' thing. What do you think?"

"That sounds great, Alya!" Marinette enthused. "I can make cupcakes or something for everyone, too! When were you thinking of having it?"

"I don't know," Alya said, "Maybe in a week or two? I want to give people enough notice."

"I'll help!" Marinette offered. She nearly retracted her words when Alya grinned at her evilly.

"You'll invite Adrien, then," she said. "And don't try to get out of it!"

Neither girl paid any attention to the boy who sat forlornly upon the next bench over, listening to their every word. He held his pencil in a death grip, his fist shaking as a menacing aura overtook him.

"No!" Marinette squealed. "I can't do that! What am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Adrien, you're invited to this party Alya is throwing. Why isn't she telling you herself? Well, uhm, she's evil and she hates me!"

"Party?" the boy with the pencil asked menacingly, standing up and facing them. "You're not allowed! Not while _I'm_ stuck inside with a stupid tutor all summer!"

Too late, Marinette realized he had been akumatized. When had that happened? He had been sitting right there, and she hadn't even noticed! She gasped as she realized she needed to get away. She needed to transform!

But Alya was right there.

"I am the Tutor-minator!" the boy, whom she didn't recognize – he wasn't part of their year – declared. "And no one is allowed to have _any_ fun this summer!"

He pulled a handful of pencils from somewhere, sending the sharpened wooden sticks hurtling toward the girls. It was only due to the months she'd spent honing her reflexes as Ladybug that Marinette managed to tackle Alya from the bench and onto the ground before they were impaled.

The pencils stuck into the wood of the bench where they had been just moments prior, and Alya paled as she looked up at them. Marinette fought to keep her breathing even as she surveyed the boy before them, searching for the location of the akuma.

She needed to get away and transform.

She needed to contact Chat Noir.

She needed to get Alya to safety.

One thing at a time. She grabbed Alya's wrist and dragged her to her feet as the Tutor-minator grabbed more pencils. She shrieked as they flew toward her, throwing Alya behind a small bush out of the way before ducking and rolling to avoid them herself.

She skidded to a halt behind the same bush at which she'd thrown Alya. Her best friend watched her in amazement, her mouth agape. Marinette may have been highly distracted, but she still noticed the cellphone held landscape in the other girl's hands. Her heart sank as she realized Alya had just caught all of that on camera, but she would deal with that later.

"Any time now, Chat," she muttered to herself, watching the Tutor-minator turn toward a group of children playing elsewhere in the park. They were running now, and Marinette wanted nothing more to jump in and save them. Alas, she was stuck behind this bush!

"You mean Chat Noir?" Alya asked, still filming – this time the villain instead of her. "Why him? Why not Ladybug?"

Marinette grimaced as she realized her mistake. Most people would ask after Ladybug first, not her partner. She said nothing, hoping Alya would forget her slip of the tongue.

She felt Tikki inside her purse, and she put a reassuring hand over her bag. She'd figure this out. Really, she would. If that meant revealing herself to Alya, well … her best friend wouldn't sell her out, right?

One of the children screamed, the sound slicing into her troubled thoughts. "Ladybug!" she wailed, "Help!"

Marinette couldn't stand by and do nothing. Not now, not when she was being called for specifically, even if no one else knew that. Deaf to Alya's protests, she grabbed a small rock and dashed out from behind the bush and into the center of the park.

"Hey, ugly!" she shouted, throwing the rock squarely into the boy's back, "Don't you know children are _supposed_ to have fun?"

She got ready to run as he turned. She was no match for him, not as Marinette. He immediately raised his hand and threw his pencils as if they were so many throwing stars. They raced at her, but before she could leap out of the way, she had the breath knocked out of her.

"Idiot," a familiar voice said. "What were you gonna do, Mar- Princess? _Insult_ the evil out of him?"

It took her a moment to realize where she was and what had happened. She blinked as she registered the fact that she was in her kitty's arms, and that he had just scooped her up out of the way of the pencil projectiles. Her cheeks flushed involuntarily; whether from indignation or something else, she didn't care to know.

"I couldn't let him attack the kids," she mumbled petulantly. "You or Ladybug would have done the same thing!"

"Yes, she would have," Chat said, shifting her to one arm so that he could use the other to vault over the fence surrounding the park with his baton.

"Wait, what about Alya?" Marinette asked frantically.

"I'll get her afterward," he said. "I can only carry one person at a time."

"And the kids?"

He set her down in an alley across the street and smiled cockily. "I'm sure the Lady will show up in a minute or two, and she'll take care of it. Don't fret, Princess."

"Who said anything about _fretting_?" she grumbled before exhaling sharply and pushing him back in the direction of the park. "Go! What are you doing, standing around here? Paris needs you!"

She realized her mistake when his grin widened. "That's right," he said. "See you later, Princess!"

Several seconds passed between the moment he left her sight and the moment she opened her purse to let Tikki out, in which she wondered what exactly just happened. She voiced her query to her kwami, who simply shrugged.

"That _was_ kind of foolish of you, Mari. Did you have a plan?"

"Of course I had a plan," Marinette insisted. "I was going to run and lead him away from everyone else, and in the process I was going to find a place to transform!" She sighed. "Well, Chat's good for something, at least. This is really convenient!"

"Are you ready?" Tikki asked.

"Yeah," Marinette said. "Let's go before he brings Alya back here. Tikki! Transform me!"

* * *

Marinette sat out on her balcony later that evening, taking a breather from the chaotic events of the day. After she'd transformed, she had run back to the park, where Chat had asked her where she'd been with a grin on his face. Half an hour later, the Tutor-minator had been defeated. The kids were safe, and Alya caught it all on camera.

Chat, true to his word, had gotten Alya out, but she had run back to the fence in order to watch the action. Marinette loved her friend, but her propensity to throw herself in potential danger was frustrating. She knew she was the pot calling the kettle black, especially after her foolhardy actions that day, but it was so distracting to have to take care of the akuma while keeping one eye peeled for any danger to Alya. It caused her to make mistakes sometimes; mistakes she otherwise could have avoided.

She sighed as she erased a line in the dress she was sketching. It was a lacey, flowy, fantastical design, something that would be completely impractical, or even impossible, to actually create. Tikki hovered over her shoulder, offering suggestions here and there – many of which Marinette took.

It was a great way to unwind after a stressful day. It had become a ritual of sorts for the two of them after akuma attacks, and they had been doing it for a while. Her sketchbook was filled with the dresses they had designed together, ranging from edgy to fantastical to space-age sci-fi.

So when her kwami ducked behind her back, whispering that someone was coming, Marinette automatically assumed it was one of her parents. Thus, when a large black shape crashed down onto the railing of her balcony from above, she shrieked. Her pencil skidded across the page, gouging a dark streak through the otherwise whimsical sketch.

"What the hell – Chat?" Then, "What the hell, Chat!"

The leather-clad superhero at least had the gumption to show a little remorse. "Sorry, Princess," he said. "That landing was not executed as well as I'd hoped. It was actually rather cat-astrophic."

Marinette simply sighed. "What are you doing here, Chat? You've never made a social call before."

Chat Noir shifted awkwardly between feet, his hand flying up to rub at the back of his neck. "I just … I was passing by, and I wanted to see if you were all right. You know, after the akuma attack this afternoon."

She smiled, closing her sketchbook. "That's cute of you, Kitty, but I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me."

"I can see that now," he said, laughing uneasily. "I'll just, uh, go, then. Have a good evening, Princess. I'll see you around!"

"You too, Chat. I never got to thank you for earlier, so thank you. I really appreciated it!"

He had turned to leap off her balcony, but he looked back at her. "Any time, Princess," he said, tossing her a jaunty salute before disappearing over the side. She stood and waved at him as he scampered across the rooftops of Paris, returning to her sketch only when he was out of sight.

But she couldn't concentrate as she wondered – for the second time that day – what the hell had just happened. She eventually gave up trying to figure it out.

"He's a cat," she told Tikki with a shrug of her shoulders, "and cats are unpredictable and confusing. Who can ever tell what it is they're thinking?"

Tikki hummed. "Impossible," she agreed.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:  
**_

 _Sorry about the delay. I had to finish my Soul Eater Resbang fic (which is up now!), then it was finals week, and all throughout I had a terrible case of writers' block. I'm back now, though, and with a longer chapter, too!  
_

 _Thank you for all your reviews, follows, and faves. They're honestly what got me off my butt to finish writing this chapter ..._

 _Despite the English dub being released, I will continue to use 'Chat Noir' in place of 'Cat Noir' and 'Transform me!' in place of 'Spots on!' and 'Claws out!'. Just so you know._


	6. L'Appel Téléphonique

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 06 :_ _L'Appel Téléphonique_  
KarmaHope

* * *

He couldn't do it.

It was ridiculous. The setup had been perfect – he had been right there. _She_ had been right there. He'd even had an excuse as to _why_ he was there. And yet, right when he had been relying on Chat Noir's personality and confidence the most, it had abandoned him, leaving him a shaking, stammering mess that he had done his best to cover up.

Chat Noir didn't _get_ nervous, especially around civilians who _definitely_ weren't his partner and his one true love.

But that in itself was the problem, because Marinette Dupain-Cheng no longer fit within the category that encompassed everyone in the world save for one. He may not have known for sure whether she _was_ _definitely_ Ladybug, but she _definitely wasn't not_ Ladybug, either.

If that made any sense.

Adrien groaned. It was all so confusing! When he had swung by the bakery, he hadn't known what his intentions were. Guilt had gnawed at him with every step and every leap between rooftops. He had known that looking into her bedroom windows would have put him in the realm of 'stalker.' Actually entering her room without her permission would have put him _way_ beyond that, and he had banished the thought nearly as soon as he'd had it.

If she _invited_ him in, though, he had thought, that would be okay, right?

Not that he had actually expected to see her. What were the chances that she would be out on her balcony at the very moment he had decided to drop in? Apparently extremely high, for there she had been, doodling in her sketchbook.

Upon seeing her face – upon seeing those eyes that were bluer than any he'd ever seen, save for Ladybug's – every suave line that he had planned out meticulously in his head had promptly left him. For the first time ever, he'd felt more like Adrien Agreste dressed as Chat Noir rather than Chat Noir who turned back into Adrien Agreste when all was said and done.

Needless to say, Operation: Befriend Marinette Dupain-Cheng AKA Possibly Ladybug AKA Probably Ladybug And Get Proof Of Aforementioned Ladybug-ness had failed. _Cat_ astrophically.

"I can't do it," he said miserably. He was sitting on the sideline of one of his many photoshoots that week and was bored to tears. While it may have looked like he was talking to himself, he knew the kwami in his pocket could hear him loud and clear.

"Yeah, you did make a bit of a fool of yourself yesterday," came the responding grumble.

"Thanks, Plagg," Adrien replied bitterly. "That really helps."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" the kwami asked, poking his head out of the pocket of Adrien's jacket. "That everything went swimmingly and you're not being an idiot? Because that would be a flat-out lie. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar."

"I know, Plagg. And I appreciate it. I really do." Adrien sighed. "I should really just let it go. Even if she _is_ Ladybug, it doesn't really change anything, does it?"

"Whaddaya mean?" Plagg asked around a mouthful of cheese.

"Well, Ladybug still doesn't like me. I mean, as Chat Noir. And it's not like Marinette likes me as Adrien – she can hardly even speak to me! So that's just, like, _double_ rejection. Revealing myself as Chat Noir would also mean telling her I know she's Ladybug, and that would just wreck our partnership more than anything."

Plagg rolled his eyes, stifling something that could have been suspiciously like laugher, if Adrien had been at all suspicious. "You've still got a lot to learn, kid. Come on, I may not agree with you about girls, but if you work all this out then I won't have to deal with you sighing like a lovestruck idiot anymore. You can't just give up!"

Adrien laughed, garnering odd looks from the set crew. More quietly, he said, "I don't know how you do it, Plagg. You always manage to be encouraging in the most derogatory way."

"Bah," Plagg grunted. "That's all I've got for today. Got any more cheese?"

Adrien shook his head. "You've eaten everything I brought," he said. "I think we're almost done here, though. We can go home soon, and then you can eat all the cheese you want."

"Make it quick," Plagg grumbled as the photo director called Adrien's name. Adrien simply smiled in response as he stood up and trudged off to do the director's bidding. Perhaps that was what he liked most about being Chat Noir, he mused. When he was in the suit, he was his own man. He didn't have to answer to anyone.

Except maybe Ladybug, but she had never really counted in his mind.

The rest of the photoshoot was excruciatingly boring. He almost wished he was still entirely preoccupied with agonizing over his _faux pas_ from the night before. Despite his not-too-successful attempt to conceal the yawns plaguing him, the director praised him for his increased focus. That was something, at least.

Two hours later, he was finally able to collapse in the back of the limo, instructing his chauffeur to wake him when they arrived back at the mansion. While he usually struggled to fall asleep in moving vehicles, the absolute lack of sleep he'd gotten recently due to … _events_ … meant that he was out within minutes of sinking into the leather.

All too soon, the sensation of a hand on his shoulder shook him awake. "We're here," his chauffeur said gruffly. Adrien stifled a yawn and stepped out onto the driveway, rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes. If he ran into this father, he couldn't let the man see how exhausted he was. It would only lead to a lecture, which would segue into another, and then another, if the man had the time. It wasn't something Adrien had the patience to deal with at the moment.

"Welcome home, Adrien," Nathalie greeted him politely as he passed by her office. "How was the photoshoot?"

"It was fine," Adrien shrugged her off. "I'll be in my room if you need me."

He didn't wait around for her response as he trudged up the stairs to his bedroom. Closing the door behind him, he sank against it gratefully and released Plagg from the pocket in which he had been hiding. The sight of his kwami zooming around his room gleefully brought a smile to his lips as he crossed his room to reveal the last of the small cheese stash he kept.

"Cheese!" Plagg exclaimed, making a beeline for it.

Adrien laughed and tapped the little creature on his head. "Sometimes I wonder if you're a mouse instead of a cat," he said affectionately.

Plagg gasped. "You insult me!" he exclaimed. "Comparing me to those nasty little creatures. Humph!"

Adrien simply shook his head, knowing his kwami's ire wouldn't last long, especially if placated with cheese. "As soon as you're done there, will you be up for a transformation?" he asked. "I need to get out of here for a while."

There hadn't been sign of any akuma, and he wasn't meeting Ladybug for patrol that night, but he needed to get out and feel the wind through his hair. He needed the freedom he could never have as Adrien; even when he was out with friends, he felt the pressure on his shoulders that came with being himself. When he was Chat Noir, however, he could be himself without having to be _himself_.

If that made any sense.

"Yeah, yeah," Plagg grumbled. "Gimme a minute, will ya?"

Adrien sat in front of his computer as he waited for his kwami, tossing his phone onto the desk before him and waking the monitors to his – actually rather embarrassing – Ladybug desktops. As he thought about the fact that it might very well be his classmate who stared back at him from the screen, he realized for the first time that, perhaps, it was creepy rather than cute.

"It's not like you're the only guy in Paris who has Ladybug as his desktop background," Plagg said, floating up beside him. Adrien's cheeks burned as he realized he must have voiced his previous thought aloud.

"Yeah, but she's probably my _classmate_. That's kinda creepy. What would she think if she came in here and saw it?"

Plagg shrugged, biting into the cheese he carried. "Probably that you're another one of Ladybug's fanboys," he said. "She doesn't know you're Chat Noir – she has no reason to suspect it."

Adrien knew Plagg had a point, but at the same time, that blue stare – the one which he could stare into for hours (and had done so on a few occasions) – now unnerved him. He shook his head sadly. He couldn't keep it there. He liked to think that he was a gentleman, at least when it counted, and so his conscience told him he needed to change it to something different.

He had just opened Google to find a slightly less creepy photo of him and Ladybug, preferably together, when his phone rang.

Before he could pick it up, however, it stopped ringing just as quickly as it has begun. Dismissing it as a wrong number, he typed a query into the search bar. Second later, his phone started ringing again, the same number displayed on the screen. This time, he managed to get it up to his ear before the person on the other end hung up on him. Pulling it away from his face, he stared down at the blank screen in confusion. What was going on?

Two minutes passed, and it rang for a third time, the same number on the caller ID once again. This time, he snatched it up with catlike reflexes and asked, "Hello?" before the person on the other end could hang up again. "Who is this?"

There was a squeak through the receiver, and then some muffled chatter. Adrien sighed and was about to hang up when at last someone said, "Uh … hi? It's, uhm, Marinette! From your class! I, uh, sat behind you …"

She trailed off, leaving Adrien to clap his hand over his furiously burning cheeks. Of all times! What were the chances? Damn, he just had the worst luck where one Marinette Dupain-Cheng was concerned. He fought to find his voice as clear blue eyes still stared back at him from two of his three monitors, judging him silently.

"Is – is this a bad time?" Marinette asked, her voice quavering, "I can, uh, I can call back l-later, if you're busy …"

"W-what? N-no, Marinette! You're fine. I'm not really doing anything at the moment. What's up?" There. He'd finally wrangled his voice under control, and he turned brusquely away from his desk. It didn't help much, as he still felt Ladybug's eyes boring into his back.

"Oh! U-uhm, I uh, got your number from Alya, who got it from Nino! In case you were, y'know, uhm, curious. Anyway!"

Adrien stifled chuckles as he listened to her ramble. It was kind of cute, but then again … _this_ was the girl he was nearly convinced was the confident Ladybug? As he mused over it, he figured that it was a pretty good disguise – no one would believe they were the same person.

Well, no one other than him, and he was starting to question his own sanity.

"What?" he asked, completely missing several seconds of the rather one-sided conversation. "Sorry, I, uh, got distracted."

"Huh? Oh, yeah! O-of course! Uhm, I was just saying that, uh, Alya's throwing a party next weekend, and, uh, she t-told me to i-invite you. I-if you're free, of course. And, uh, y'know, interested."

"Of course I'm interested!" Adrien exclaimed, standing from his desk chair. He hesitated for only a second, then killed his computer. He couldn't take the feeling of being watched anymore. "What day? What time?"

"Uhm, I, uh, a-actually I suggested that we, uh, ask _you_ ," came Marinette's stammering reply. "B-because you're s-so busy and all, so, uh, when would work b-best?"

"Oh," Adrien said, wondering if he'd heard her correctly. "Oh! Yeah, give me a moment to check!"

He was touched. He was absolutely _touched_ by the fact they had thought to work around his schedule. No one had ever done that for him before. Even when Nino attempted to throw him a birthday party, he as the Bubbler had just decided it was going to happen in the middle of the day. And to hear that _Marinette_ was the one who'd thought of it … well, maybe his lady was looking out for him, after all.

Then he remembered she had no clue that he was Chat Noir, and his heart hurt a little.

"Hold on a sec, Marinette. My schedule's on my phone."

He heard her faint "Okay," as he pulled his phone away from his ear and opened his schedule, the bar at the top reminding him that he was still within the call. Scanning through the next weekend, he grinned.

"How about Sunday afternoon?" he asked. "My last shoot ends at three, but you can start the party a little earlier. I don't mind."

"O-okay! I'll let Alya know! We, uh, don't know where we're gonna have it yet. It'll be either at Alya's place or – or mine. I'll, uh, call you back once we know for sure."

"Sounds good," Adrien managed to say, shocked by the fact he might have just had his opportunity handed to him. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he wasn't entirely unlucky when it came to Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

"Uhm, one more thing," Marinette said before he could say an awkward goodbye. "Don't, uh, don't tell Chloé! I know you're friends, and that's, y'know, fine, but uh … yeah!"

This time, Adrien did actually laugh softly. "Don't worry, I get it. I promise I won't tell her. Wouldn't want her to make it all about her, would we?"

Damn, did he actually make a joke? This was the most he'd talked to Marinette in the months he'd known her, including even their conversations before she'd left for China. He was more nervous than he'd ever thought he'd be around her, but he chalked it up to his suspicions of her identity as Ladybug.

Marinette giggled. "N-no," she said. "Not really."

Silence fell between them, neither of them really sure what to say. Adrien was burning to poke around about Ladybug, but he wouldn't. Not now. Not yet.

"So –"

"Well!" Marinette exclaimed, cutting him off. She must not have heard him, as she continued, "I should, uh, probably get going. I'll, uhm, I'll text you later with where the party will be."

Adrien smiled. He'd get the chance to ask about her trip to China later, possibly even at the party. "Okay," he said. "Sounds good. I'll talk to you later."

"Uh, yeah! Later! Uhm, bye!"

She hung up before he could say goodbye himself. Removing his phone from his ear, he stared down at it for several moments. He smiled as he shook his head. Marinette was definitely a bit of an odd duck, and yet it was somewhat endearing in a way, especially when paired with her tendency to be so kind to everyone.

Well, everyone except maybe Chloé, which was understandable. But even then, she tried to be nice before the other girl took things too far.

He tossed his phone down onto his bed and turned to Plagg, who had been unusually silent throughout the entire call. "Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"I _suppose_ ," the kwami groaned. "I was just waiting for you to get off the phone with your _girlfriend_."

Adrien felt his cheeks burn _again_. "That was Marinette! She's not my girlfriend! You know that."

"But you want her to be."

He paused. "Not … exactly," he said.

"But you want _Ladybug_ to be your girlfriend. And if they're the same person …"

"I know!" he exclaimed, cutting Plagg off. "I know. I'm going to figure it out. I just need some time, okay?"

"It's your own grave you're digging. You know what they say –"

"Yeah, yeah, curiosity and the cat and all. I know. Come on Plagg, let's go."

He shouted the magic words, and not seconds later he was leaping out of his window and running across the rooftops of Paris. He had no destination in particular – he just needed to run. He needed to get away from his stuffy life as Adrien Agreste. He needed to work out the pure elation he still felt at being asked when would work best for him for the party. He needed to ignore the confliction he felt over his feelings for Ladybug versus how he felt about Marinette.

And so he ran.

How he ended up on a rooftop across the street from the bakery, when that was the one place he wanted to avoid at all costs, he would never know.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _Thanks so much for your patience. There's been so much happening, what with school and break and everything.  
_

 _I've written and posted so many other things since I last updated. My Soul Eater fic,_ These Broken Souls _, is finished and posted. I updated my FMA fic_ Rewriting Fiction _for the first time in months. If you're part of those fandoms, you should go read the things._

 _And you should all go read my other Miraculous Ladybug fic, the oneshot_ Fermeture _. I'm super proud of it._

 _Never wonder if reviews, follows, and favorites motivate a writer to write. Every time someone new followed/faved/reviewed this fic, I was like ... 'shoot. Now I've got even more people I can't let down!' So thank you. I love this fandom._


	7. Les Choses Sont un Gâchis

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 07 : Les Choses Sont un Gâchis_  
KarmaHope

* * *

Marinette couldn't believe she had _actually_ called Adrien Agreste. That she'd actually had a _conversation_ with him! She stared down at her cell phone blankly, her hands still shaking violently from the sheer force of the nerves that had threatened to overwhelm her. How she had managed to not drop her phone in the middle of their conversation, she would never know.

"Eeee!" Alya's excited squeal shook her out of the Adrien-induced trance. "You did it, Mari! I'm so proud of you!"

The dark-haired girl smiled weakly. "I hate you, Alya," she said, dropping her phone onto the chaise lounge with a sense of finality. "You're the worst."

"No, I'm not," Alya said confidently. "I just got you to hold an entire conversation with your crush, _and_ you didn't embarrass yourself too badly! Really, girl, you just need to be more confident. Think of yourself for once!"

"Yeah, I know," Marinette sighed, gazing over at her computer's monitor, which now sported a group picture of her, Alya, Nino, and Adrien as its background image. Her week in China, spent with her relatives and far removed from her troubles in France, had given her some time to think. While she hadn't managed to figure everything out – far from it, in fact – she had come to a couple realizations, aided in part by observing her older cousin's attitude about and interactions with _her_ boyfriend.

She had been forced to come to terms with the fact that her behavior regarding Adrien was downright childish and even rather creepy, if one really looked at it. She had realized that in the wake of her massive celebrity crush and her resulting inability to speak naturally with him, she had channeled her affections in such a way that it made talking with him even harder.

After all, how could one hold a conversation with someone while knowing she had a super embarrassing edit of him as her desktop background? While knowing she had his entire schedule mapped out on a pull-down sheet mounted to her ceiling?

And so she had started to step back, just a little bit. She'd taken down the schedule, storing it away in the corner to use as pattern paper later on. She'd replaced her desktop background with a photo that – while it was still of him, in part – was much more natural. One she wouldn't be embarrassed about if he saw it.

Which, speaking of …

"We're having the party here, aren't we," Marinette said resignedly, looking at Alya. "I've been to your apartment. There's no way we're fitting our entire class in there."

"Well, I mean, it makes sense," Alya said, leaning back in her chair. "Your parents were going to make snacks anyway – you know they were. I thought maybe we could all hang out at the park until it got dark, and then come back here."

"Yeah, it does make sense," Marinette agreed. "Okay, I'll talk to my parents about it tonight." She grinned. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Alya grinned back at her. " _And_ you can finally ask Adrien if he wants to hang out this summer," she said, reaching over to tap the top Marinette's thigh. "I know you chickened out last time."

Marinette groaned as she tugged her pigtails. "What was I supposed to do? Chloé was there! She asked him if he was going on a _cruise_ with her family, and he said he was too busy! If he turned down Chloé and a cruise, how could he possibly have said yes to my pathetic request?"

"But he said he would love to come to our party," Alya said. "He even told us when would work best specifically so he _could_ come! Mari, you underestimate yourself."

Marinette shrugged, swallowing the butterflies that began to leap up into her throat. "You think so?" she asked hopefully.

Alya smiled as she stood. "Marinette," she said, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder, "I _know_ so. Now come on, I really need to be getting home."

Marinette pushed herself off the chaise lounge and walked with Alya down to the front door. "I'll see you soon," she said as her friend began the walk home.

"Don't forget to call Adrien again!" Alya called back in response. "And actually call him – don't just text him!"

"Okay!" Marinette said, loud enough for Alya to hear. "Bye!"

As soon as Alya had turned the corner, Marinette dashed back up the three flights of stairs to her bedroom. Anyone else might have been out of breath, but Marinette barely felt even a slight burning in her legs. Alone for the first time since the ordeal, she squealed excitedly as she hopped in place.

She'd actually talked to Adrien Agreste!

He'd agreed to come to their party!

Her heart felt as if it would explode as she dashed over to her desktop and stared into image-Adrien's greener-than-green eyes. The photo was from that one time they had all gone to the movies together – Alya had insisted upon a selfie that she'd immediately texted to everyone in the group. Marinette and Adrien were separated by Nino, but she didn't really mind – it only meant that she had a normal facial expression in the photo rather than the blushing mess.

She didn't notice Tikki calling her name until the frustrated kwami tugged at a loose strand of her hair. "Ow," she said, pulling her hair from Tikki's grasp. "Sorry, Tikki. I wasn't paying attention."

"I could tell," the kwami chirped. "So, it looks like you'll get to see Adrien this summer after all!"

"Not you too," Marinette groaned, spinning away from her computer. "Alya already reminded me of my failure. But yeah, I guess I will!"

"Are you going to give everyone their souvenirs at the party?" Tikki asked, but Marinette, already in much higher spirits, had already jumped up.

"Maybe," she dismissed as she bounced over to her bed, twirling along the way. "Probably," she conceded, knowing Alya probably wouldn't go home until she got it. She twirled again at the base of the ladder to her bed, squealing as she did. "I'm just so _happy!_ "

"Don't forget you need to call Adrien again to tell him you're having the party here," Tikki reminded her.

Marinette paused before dashing back to the chaise lounge to grab her phone. "Right!" she exclaimed. "I'll just go do that real quick!"

* * *

Only a few moments later, Marinette found herself standing on her balcony, her phone clutched tightly against her chest as rested her elbows upon the rail. She already felt on top of the world, and the light breeze tickling her hair only brought her higher. Even the stress of her impending second phone call with Adrien fell away with the pleasantness of the day.

On impulse, Marinette pulled the ties from her pigtails, allowing her dark hair to flutter freely in the wind. It wasn't something she did often – not when she felt that letting her hair down made her look even younger than her fifteen, nearly sixteen years. Besides that, she was always on the move. It got in her way as she tried to work, and she didn't have the time to tie it up when an akuma attacked.

But she had none of that to worry about now, and so she and Tikki – who was nestled in the crook of her neck – laughed as she shook her head enough to whip the free strands around. It was only as she was pushing bluish-black strands out of her face that her eyes met a pair of equally-shocked green ones staring back at her from across the street.

She shrieked, grabbing at her hair to corral it into two messy pigtails.

Chat yelped as he slipped off the roof he was standing on.

"Chat!" His name tore from her throat as she let go of her hair to clutch at the railing before her. Her knuckles were white and her hair fell loosely around her face as she peered down into the street below. "Are you okay?"

"M'fine," came the muffled response from four stories below as Chat pushed himself to his feet. "I've survived worse. Nine lives, y'know."

Marinette forced herself to grin. "That's a myth, you know," she said as she continued to look on in worry as Chat worked his way back up to the roof, limping slightly. She forcefully swallowed back the guild that threatened to overwhelm her. It wasn't her fault, she knew. _He_ had been the one lurking outside her house, not the other way around.

Speaking of …

"What are you doing here, Chat?" she asked with a sigh as the cat in question landed, somewhat ungracefully, upon her balcony. He was obviously still favoring his leg. "I'm perfectly safe," she continued. "There haven't been any akuma attacks today … and isn't it still a bit early for patrol?"

Chat Noir smiled sheepishly, somewhat abashed. "I just needed to get out," he admitted, looking down at his feet. "I didn't mean to come here, but … it happened anyway." He shrugged. "I can leave, if you'd like."

Marinette regarded him for a second. She knew her Kitty well, and he truly did look remorseful. He also looked equal parts uncomfortable and like he didn't want to leave; it was odd, seeing her partner so out of his element like this. She didn't understand his nervousness – it was just her, after all. Taking a deep breath, she smiled and rolled her eyes. "You can stay, you silly kitty," she said. "I wasn't planning on doing anything else today, except …"

She felt the blood drain from her face as she realized. "Ah, _merde!_ " she cursed, forgetting her previous train of thought. "My phone!"

In her panic, she had dropped it when she'd grabbed at her hair. Glancing frantically down at her feet, she squeaked in horror when she spotted it hanging precariously over the edge of the balcony. Half of her wanted to dart down to snatch it up immediately, but she feared knocking it the rest of the way over and sending it down into the sidewalk below. Instead, she crouched slowly and plucked it up gently. A flash of red told her why her phone hadn't met its end the way it probably should have.

Oh god. Tikki! Had Chat seen her? How long had he been standing there, across the way? Was his eyesight good enough to spot the little creature? She silently crossed her fingers and prayed to whatever deity was out there that her secret was still safe.

She would tell Chat the truth eventually – she'd have to – but today was not the day.

"I-is it okay?" Chat asked worriedly, peering over her shoulder at the rectangle clenched within her hands.

Marinette pressed the on button and sighed in relief as the screen lit up. "Uh, yeah, it's fine," she said, making a note to thank Tikki later. She'd even make cookies, she decided as she slid her phone into her back pocket.

"Good," Chat said. "That could have been really bad. I'm, uh, sorry I startled you."

She waved him off as she crouched to retrieve the hair elastics she had also dropped, to less devastating potential consequences than her phone. "These things happen," she said, beginning to tie her hair up into pigtails once again. Tikki and her parents were the only ones who ever really saw her with her hair down; Alya did on the few occasions they had sleepovers, but that was it. With Chat standing there, she was growing irrationally self-conscious.

"If you're going to hang out," she said tentatively, "you can sit down if you'd like. I've only got one chair, but you're welcome to use it."

Chat Noir grinned, apparently regaining some of the bravado she was so familiar with. "How paw-sitively thoughtful of you," he said, turning to plop into her pink and white deck chair. His limbs sprawled as he leaned back, looking quite like the cat who ate the canary. "This is a wonderful setup you have here."

Marinette grinned. "Thanks," she said, tying off her second pigtail. "It wasn't fun, carrying everything up this far, but it was totally worth it." She hesitated for just a second, then climbed up to sit on the counter beside the chair. "I love it up here."

"I can see why," Chat said, snuggling deeper into the chair. "If I had a place like this, I'd never want to leave. It's like …" he paused for a second. "Up here, you can be alone, but you'd never be _lonely_ – not with all of Paris out there."

"I … never thought of it that way," Marinette said, surprised. The look on his face tore at her heartstrings. This was a new side of him that she'd never seen before; it was one that he'd diligently hidden from Ladybug, his partner. Was she so callous toward him as Ladybug that he felt he couldn't trust her with something as close to his heart as his loneliness? Because he _was_ lonely – she could see it.

In fact, it very closely resembled a similar expression she'd seen cross Adrien's face when he thought no one was watching. She smiled weakly, a sympathetic look in her eye. No one should have to feel that way, she thought, not when all she'd ever known was warmth and love.

"Oh," she said, drawing Chat out of his melancholy thoughts, "I was supposed to call a … friend, of mine." Her cheeks heated, and she knew it wasn't entirely from the late afternoon sunlight. As much as she was now working to think of Adrien as a friend before he was a model and her crush, she still got slightly flustered at the thought of him.

"Oh? What for?" Chat asked innocently.

"My friend Alya and I are having a party next week," Marinette said quickly. "I told my friend I'd call him to tell him where it would be. It's, uh, actually why I came up here in the first place." She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"Can't you just text him?"

"Well," she hedged, "I could, but Alya insisted that I actually call him."

Chat snorted. "She'd never know," he said. "Just text him – I'm sure it'll be fine."

Marinette grabbed her phone from her pocket and glanced down at it before looking back up at the black-clad superhero curled up in her pink deck chair. "You don't mind if I –?"

"Not at all," he insisted, closing his eyes. "I'll still be here."

Laughing quietly at how catlike her partner appeared at that moment, curled up and sunning himself in her chair, she dashed a quick text off to Adrien. Well, it should have been quick, but in all reality it took her about five minutes of typing and backspacing before she was finally happy enough to send it. Even then, she cringed slightly as she pressed the button.

"Sorry about that," she said, looking up only to find Chat's face in her own, staring at her intently. "Wh- what?" she asked, leaning away. "What is it?"

He lifted his hand to her face, and she was so busy trying to figure out whether or not she should be panicking that she completely missed what had happened until she felt her hair tickling her cheek once more. Her hand flew up to it in shock as she stared at him. He leaned back in the chair, grinning smugly as he toyed with her hair elastic between his fingers.

She tried to find words, but had to settle only for, "… What?"

Chat shrugged, his cheeks slightly pink beneath his mask. "I've never seen you with your hair down before. It's, uh, really pretty, actually."

"This is like, the third time you've seen me," Marinette protested while fighting to control her own blush. All the same, she slowly reached up to pull the second tie out as well. She knew Chat wasn't going to give the first one back, and she only looked sillier lopsided.

Besides, she might never be 'beautiful,' not like Ladybug, but she could settle for 'really pretty' any day.

"I don't like wearing it down," she admitted. "It makes me look even younger than I already do."

Chat looked at her, a critical gleam in his green eyes as he examined her face. "I don't think so," he said, "but I understand where you're coming from."

"So are you gonna give me my hair tie back?"

"Nope!"

"Chat!"

Chat Noir leapt from the chair, whirling nimbly away from her outstretched hand. "What?" he asked, "It's not like you don't have more of these."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "It's the principle of the thing," she said sternly, crossing one arm over her chest while she held the other out toward him. "You can't just take people's stuff!"

"Well excuuuse me, Princess," he said, grinning widely as he dropped the offending object back in her palm. "I was just kidding – you can have it back. What would I do with it anyway?"

"I don't know," Marinette replied, closing her hand around the tie before planting her fists on her hips. "Your hair's getting awfully long – I'm sure we could tie it back somehow."

Chat blanched. "I'll pass, thanks," he said, then sighed as he looked to where the sun was sinking closer to the horizon. "I should be getting home, actually, before anyone notices I'm gone. I, uh … sorry again for startling you."

She shrugged. "No harm done," she said. "I understand. I'll see you around, all right?"

He paused in climbing up onto the same counter she'd been sitting on minutes prior. "Yeah," he said, "I'll be seeing you. Goodnight, Princess!"

"Goodnight," Marinette called weakly as he disappeared around the back of her chimney. Almost as soon as he was out of sight, she sunk down into her deck chair and buried her face in her hands. A few moments later, a nudge at the back of her hand prompted her to look up into Tikki's large blue eyes.

"Are you okay, Marinette?"

She sighed. "I don't know, Tikki. That could have been a disaster. What if he'd _seen_ you? What would I have done then?"

Tikki shrugged. "We would have had to tell him," she said. "It's going to happen eventually."

"Yes, but not until after we've defeated Hawkmoth! If Hawkmoth learns about either of our identities …"

The thought was sobering, and both fell quiet. They knew what would happen. Hawkmoth would inevitably target those closest to them, and use the two heroes against each other. She couldn't bear the thought of her parents and her friends becoming collateral to her secrets. At last, Marinette spoke again.

"And, what's worse," she said, her voice small, "is that I think I was just _flirting_ with Chat! Oh, god I hope he didn't notice. How could I be so unfaithful to Adrien?" His name was drawn out in a sob as she buried her face in her hands once again.

"You're not actually dating Adrien," Tikki reminded her gently.

"No, but I _want_ to! And after I'd made so much progress today, too …"

"But maybe this _is_ progress!" The kwami exclaimed, pushing Marinette's hands away from her face. "You're not _obsessing_ over him so much anymore – it's enough that you were comfortable flirting with Chat Noir! Maybe this is what you need, Marinette, to take a step back from it all."

"Maybe," Marinette said morosely. She sighed. "I guess it's no good thinking about it at the moment."

A few minutes later, she returned to her bedroom. She was no longer riding the high of her phone call with Adrien, but at the same time she had very much enjoyed seeing a side of Chat Noir she never got to see as Ladybug. She groaned loudly in frustration, running her hands back through her hair while digging her fingers into her scalp.

When had this all gotten so messed up?

* * *

 ** _Author's Note:  
_**

 _Again, thank you all for waiting so patiently, and for your wonderful reviews. I kind of teased you a bit with the touch of Marichat a couple chapters ago, so I decided to make it up to you :)  
_


	8. C'est une Fête

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 08 : C'est une Fête_  
KarmaHope

* * *

Adrien was far more nervous than he had a right to be.

He gripped his phone tightly as he stood in his bedroom, having just returned from his photoshoot. Taking a deep breath, he did his best to calm his nerves as he ran over the facts – or at least, what he believed to be the facts.

One: Marinette Dupain-Cheng was his friend.

Two: Marinette Dupain-Cheng may or may not be Ladybug.

Three: He thought Marinette Dupain-Cheng was really pretty with her hair down.

Four: He had been texting Marinette Dupain-Cheng all week.

That afternoon upon her balcony, he had told Marinette to text him simply for the reason that he knew 'Adrien' would be unable to pick up the phone. As Chat Noir, he was comfortable admitting it had been a selfish decision on his part. He wanted the chance to actually speak with the girl he was becoming increasingly fascinated by, not be reduced to listening to a fumbled voicemail message that he already would have heard once.

But that one text had turned into two, which had then become four, eight, and sixteen – at this point, he had stopped counting. That is, if he'd ever been counting in the first place. The thought hadn't actually occurred to him when he'd gotten home that evening to see the text from her waiting among his unread messages.

 _I can't call rn_ , it had read, _but the party will be at my house :)_

He'd laughed. Considering how long it had taken her to write out the text, he'd expected to find a veritable paragraph, not just a single sentence with an emoticon – an _emoticon_ , not an emoji – at the end. As he'd typed out his reply, he'd wondered which part of the simple sentence had caused her such hesitation.

As it turned out, Marinette was just an extremely slow texter. It made him feel almost guilty about replying to her messages within seconds sometimes when she would take minutes or even hours to get back to him in return. Was he being too forward? In all honesty, he'd never been this excited to talk to anyone except … Ladybug.

Well, if his suspicions were true, he supposed that made sense.

He had been looking forward to this party all week. The very thought of it – and of the time he had spent with Marinette on her balcony that day – had gotten him through many an excruciatingly boring photoshoot. Plagg had teased him about it all week, and yet now, as he stood in his room preparing to change into more casual clothing, he froze.

"What do I do, Plagg?" he asked, turning to his kwami. "I haven't had to actually face her as _myself_ since this whole thing started! I can't do it!"

Plagg rolled his eyes. "Just don't act like an idiot, and you'll be fine. Honestly, I don't know why you're so worried about this."

Adrien stared at him incredulously. "Really? Plagg, if she finds out that I know – and especially if she finds out I've been keeping it from her – she'll never forgive me!"

"But she doesn't know you're Chat Noir," Plagg pointed out idly. "If she finds out _Adrien_ knows, then she'll probably just make sure you keep it a secret. Seriously, stop worrying. You're giving me a headache."

Adrien wanted to say more, but knew Plagg had taken about as much of his whinging as he could handle. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his nerves. Everything would be fine, he told himself. Everything would be just fine.

And maybe by the end of the evening, he and Marinette would actually be friends. Even in the off chance that she wasn't Ladybug, Adrien still wanted to know her better. She had been so relaxed when he had visited her as Chat – he wished he could see that side of her when he was Adrien as well.

Of course, now that he thought about it … she may have been so relaxed around Chat Noir _because she was Ladybug_. Even when they'd worked together to defeat _Le Dessinateur_ , she'd been on top of things and comfortable with him from the start. It was something he'd thought about before, when he'd only first started to realize that Marinette might be Ladybug, but recent events brought it to the forefront of his thoughts once again.

As he changed out of his expensive work clothes and into a much more comfortable t-shirt and jeans, he was struck by a realization that made him stop in his tracks. The pause was so sudden that it even caused Plagg to look over at him questioningly.

He no longer just thought that Marinette might be Ladybug. He _wanted_ Marinette to be Ladybug.

" _Merde,_ " he cursed softly to himself. "Well, that answers _that_ question, I guess."

"What question?" Plagg asked, looking up from the cheese Adrien had set aside for him.

"Nothing, nothing," Adrien dismissed. He would tell his kwami eventually, but for the moment even he wanted to ignore the implied ramifications of the realization. This party would have been hard enough to deal with without his newfound epiphany.

Well, he'd never been one to take things by halves. Why start now?

He sighed heavily. "Come on, Plagg," he said. "Let's go have some fun."

Plagg swallowed the last of his camembert and dove into Adrien's pocket. "You don't _sound_ like you're gonna have fun," he accused.

Adrien shrugged as he stepped out of his bedroom. "I'm sure I'm just overthinking it. I'll have fun once we're actually there." Plagg couldn't respond as they descended the stairs into the foyer.

When he'd first heard about the party a week before, Adrien had originally wanted to escape through his window as Chat Noir, then transform back once he was on the street. It would have been easier and less ostentatious than having his chauffeur drive him. In the end, the only thing that had stopped him was the idea of Nathalie knocking on his door to find him gone.

The potential outcome of such a scenario was not worth risking over such a trivial thing as avoiding the limo. If his father learned of him sneaking out, his life would certainly take a turn for the worse.

So he met his chauffeur in the driveway, climbed into the large black car, and sat quietly as the stoic man took him through Paris. As they drove past the familiar buildings, Adrien couldn't stop himself from smiling. He'd run across the roof of that building. On this one, he'd nearly fallen _off_ the roof, saved only by Ladybug. Marinette.

 _Ladybug_.

He had to remind himself that even if Marinette and Ladybug were the same person, when Ladybug was Ladybug she was still _Ladybug._

Dammit. That didn't make sense even to himself.

What he meant as that even if Marinette turned out to be Ladybug, then there was still a separation between the two. He couldn't call Ladybug 'Marinette' while they were in the middle of a fight, nor could he call Marinette 'Ladybug' in any situation where someone else could hear him. Therefore, Ladybug was still Ladybug and Marinette was still Marinette.

A sharp nudge at his side brought him out of his cyclical thoughts. Glancing down at Plagg before looking out the tinted window of the limousine, he realized they were already pulled up outside of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Forcefully swallowing back a last-minute surge of nerves, he did his best to summon some of Chat Noir's courage as he stepped out of the limo, waved goodbye to his chauffeur, and stepped inside.

* * *

He was immediately surrounded by warmth which he had never known. Not only was he enveloped in the sweet scent of the oven-warmed air and the welcoming décor, but he was also immediately accosted by the forces of nature that were Marinette's parents. He would be lying if he said he wasn't intimidated by Tomas Dupain for the first few moments after he met him.

"So _you're_ Adrien!" Sabine enthused, stepping forward as Tom stepped back into the kitchen. "Mari has told us so much about you! Come in, come in!"

Adrien wasn't entirely sure what to make of the situation, but he gladly followed her out of the storefront and into the living quarters of the establishment. Prompted by the large pile of shoes that sat just within the entrance, Adrien removed his own. Sabine smiled, then pointed toward the stairs.

"They're all upstairs – probably on the first floor, by the sound of it." She chuckled, and Adrien joined in nervously.

"Okay. Thanks, Mrs. Cheng."

"Oh, Adrien!" Tom said, coming around the corner carrying a large tray of various baked goods, "Take this up for me, will you?"

Adrien was still trying to comprehend what was happening when the tray was thrust into his arms. Although it looked heavily, thankfully he was able to handle it with ease. "Uh, sure!" he said with a grin. When in doubt, his modeling experience advised him, smile. And so he did.

He felt twin gazes boring holes into his back as he climbed the stairs slowly, taking care not to drop the food he carried. He actually found he kind of wanted to make a good impression on Marinette's parents, and he was absolutely certain that spilling a large tray of home-baked goods down the stairs – thereby wasting time, effort and food while also getting crumbs into the carpet – was not the way to go about that.

Ladybug may think him a klutz, he decided, but he could at least do this much without screwing up.

He took a deep breath as he rounded the corner, feeling about as nervous as he had before his first-ever photoshoot. He was being ridiculous. It was just Marinette. Marinette, whom he had gone to school with all year. Marinette, whom he'd never managed to have a real conversation with outside of texts and that one time he'd been hidden behind the mask of Chat Noir.

Marinette, who could possibly be Ladybug, the girl he's been in love with since he first met her nearly a year ago.

 _That_ Marinette.

But what made it worse was that he knew, somewhere deep inside, that he would still be this nervous even if Ladybug wasn't in the equation. And that's what scared him most.

He couldn't pinpoint when exactly it had happened. Perhaps he had given her more of a second thought _because_ he had suspected she might be Ladybug, but things had clearly progressed past that point without his notice. Maybe it was when he'd seen her – as Marinette – throw rocks at that akuma to distract it from the children, or when he'd learned she'd suggested they ask him about which day would work best to have the party. It could have been the conversation they'd had on her balcony, in which she'd never stuttered. Heck, it might have even been the moment he saw her with her hair down.

Unfortunately, he suspected it was the successive combination of events that had him doomed from the start.

To his utmost relief, no one paid attention to his entrance. Everyone was crowded around Marinette's television, thoroughly invested in the ongoing game of Mario Kart. From what he could tell, the four contestants were Rose, Kim, Mylène, and Marinette herself. Marinette was in the lead, followed closely by Kim and Mylène, while Rose struggled somewhere around seventh place.

Alix was the first to notice him standing there, the tray still in his arms. "Yo!" she exclaimed, "Adrien's here! With food!"

Marinette squeaked as she jumped, the motion sending Rosalina straight off the edge of Rainbow Road. Kim crowed in delight as Bowser sped into first place.

Nino pushed himself off one of the couches to help Adrien with the tray of food. "Hey, dude," he said, taking it from him. "How'd the shoot go?"

Adrien shrugged, his eyes darting back over to the match on the screen. "It was a shoot," he said. "Stood around for a few hours. Changed clothes. Stood around for another couple hours. It was terribly boring. I wish I could have been here sooner."

"Well, you're here now," Nino said. "Come in, sit down. Yo! My man here gets next race," he called out. He was met with a smattering of confirmation in response, and soon Adrien found himself on the couch wedged between Nino and Nathanaël. Marinette was on Nathanaël's other side, fully invested in the game as she barely squeaked past Kim for the win.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed amidst the cheers from the others around her.

He wanted to say something. He wanted to congratulate her. He wanted to bump her fist with a " _Bien joué!_ " and laugh with her over the inside joke that no one else here would understand. He settled for a "Nice, Marinette," and a smile when she glanced his way, only for her to look entirely flustered.

"Uh, y-yeah! Thanks, uhm, Adrien," she stammered. "Here, uh, do you want to play?"

She was starting to hand her controller to him when Alya stopped her. "Hey, hey!" the girl called from Nino's other side, "What are you doing? We're playing losers switch out – you know that!"

"Oh, right." Marinette blushed and retracted her hand. "Uh, sorry."

"Here, Adrien," Rose said, handing him her controller instead. "I just hope you do better than I did!" she laughed, and Adrien joined her. "I'll try," he promised.

Mylène was passing her controller off to Juleka when Nathanaël asked quietly, "Marinette? Where's the bathroom?"

"Down the hall and to the left," she answered brightly. Adrien found himself wondering how she could answer such a simple question so cheerily, and yet not speak two words with him without stumbling. Did he scare her? He certainly hoped not. He wasn't all that scary.

He didn't have much time to debate it with himself, because Nathanael stood up – leaving him directly next to Marinette. He tried grinning at her, but even he felt it came off a little weak with nerves. Thankfully, she didn't notice, blushing even brighter before turning back to the television.

Not for the first time, he had a hard time reconciling the brave girl he'd seen face down the akuma – the one who looked like she might be Ladybug – and the girl that sat beside him. When the race started, however, she lost all traces of her nervousness as she settled in to win – again, from what he could tell.

Except she didn't win this time. She might have, but Adrien wasn't entirely against underhanded techniques such as knocking into her shoulder while she was near an edge. What could he say? Being Chat Noir had taught him to play dirty sometimes if it meant the difference between a victory and a defeat.

Okay, maybe he was just using it as an excuse to try to get her to loosen up around him. But was it really an excuse when it was actually _working?_ Enough so that she reached over and grabbed his controller, sending over the edge of Koopa Cape? He still ended up winning that one, but it was a close call.

In fact, they ended up messing each other up so badly that they both lost the next round. Passing their controllers off to Nino and Alya, they continued to sit beside each other on the couch. They were both slightly stiff, and there were a couple inches of space between them, but it was progress.

* * *

The party ran until about nine o'clock. They had eventually grown bored of Mario Kart, and had moved to the park across the street from the bakery sometime after dinner. It was a beautiful night out, so why not? They'd found an old football in one of Marinette's closets, and had started a full-out pickup game. Marinette had captained one team, Adrien the other.

To everyone's surprise, no one could catch the dark-haired girl as she ran down the impromptu pitch. No one, that is, except Adrien. Much in the same way, Marinette was the only one who could counter Adrien's catlike reflexes. The only thing that kept the game from being a two-person show was the fact that neither of them ever kept the ball for very long, passing it off to teammates whenever possible.

By the time nine o'clock came about, everyone was entirely exhausted. Waving weary goodbyes and exchanging promises to hang out again before the summer was over, their classmates left one by one until it was only Adrien, Nino, Alya, and Marinette lying in the grass.

"I think I could just lie here all night," Alya sighed. "That was more than enough exercise for a week."

"Come on," Marinette said. "That was fun!"

"Says the girl who's hardly out of breath!" Alya countered. "Adrien, I understand – he fences regularly! You, girl, you don't do any exercising. It's unnatural."

Marinette laughed weakly. "I do a lot of lifting in the bakery," she protested, "and I climb three flights of stairs every time I want to get to my room. I'm not _that_ out of shape."

"Apparently not," Alya said.

"That was a good game," Adrien said, jumping into the conversation. He might have joined in sooner if he hadn't been so curious as to what Marinette would say to Alya's accusations. What she'd said made sense, too, and he inwardly admired her alibi. That is, _if_ she were Ladybug.

If, if, if.

"Yeah, dude," Nino added. "It's been so long since I last played!"

"We'll have to do it again sometime," Alya said. "Looks like we'll have to have another party at your place, Mari!"

Marinette chuckled. "That's fine," she said. "My parents love having everyone over, and it's not like my house isn't big enough to fit everyone!"

Everyone laughed a little at that. Marinette was so down-to-Earth that it was easy to forget she was from money as well – she had to be, for her family to be able to afford the four-story property in the middle of Paris _and_ be able to send her to Collège Françoise-Dupont. But it wasn't a defining part of her, like it was him and Chloé. He envied her for it.

"Oh!" Alya exclaimed, sitting up and facing Marinette. "I believe you owe us all something!"

"Oh, right!" Marinette said, sitting up as well. Adrien and Nino soon followed suit. "I completely forgot about that! Here, I'll go get them. I'll be back in a minute, guys!"

Adrien stared after her in confusion, and Nino didn't look like he knew much more about what was going on than he did. At last, he turned to Alya.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"The souvenirs from her trip to China!" Alya told them, in something of a 'well, duh,' tone. "I've been bugging her for weeks about it, but she wanted us all to get them at the same time."

"Whoa, cool!"

"Wait," Adrien said, still slightly confused. "She got something for all of us?" Something for _him?_ He remembered vaguely her saying something about doing so, but he hadn't actually expected anything. He'd actually completely forgotten about it after …

… after she – _Ladybug_ – had given her gifts to Chat.

Well, then.

"Of course she did!" Alya exclaimed. "You really think she wouldn't – you know what? Never mind. You'll find out soon enough."

"Find out what?"

He never got to hear what Alya's response was, because there was a sudden _crash_ in the distance. The girl was on her feet immediately, her phone in her hands. She looked down at them expectantly. "Well?" she asked, "Are you coming?"

Adrien knew exactly what the crash was, and where Alya was headed, but pretended to play dumb. "Coming where?"

"To the site of the akuma attack, dummy! I really want to talk to Ladybug – I haven't gotten to talk to her in a few weeks and my followers are bugging me for it!"

He had to bite his tongue _very_ hard to keep himself from pointing out the pun that she had made so unintentionally. "I dunno," he said, trying to back out. "It seems kind of dangerous. What about Marinette?"

Alya shook her head. "She doesn't like the violence," she said. "She's safe inside, and – fine. Nino, you're coming, right?"

"Do I have any choice?" the boy asked, standing. "Come on, dude. You'll get to meet _Ladybug!_ Aren't you, like, crushing on her hardcore or something?"

Adrien was torn. On one hand, yes, he was. He was crushing on her so hardcore he found he was – likely – falling for her twice. On the other hand, he _really_ needed to be there for her. But what excuse did he really have, with both Alya and Nino staring at him? He supposed he could say he needed to be home, which was true, but at the same time Nino knew he would usually take advantage of any opportunity that gave him a valid excuse to be home late.

"Fine," he said at last. "I'll go.

Murmuring an apology to his lady beneath his breath, he followed after his two friends. Casting one last surreptitious look back at Marinette's house, he hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't regret this.

Adrien felt Plagg nudge his side from inside his pocket, and the fact that black cats were often seen as omens of bad luck did absolutely nothing to comfort him.

* * *

 ** _Author's Note:  
_**

 _Just a note: 'Football' in this case is not American football, it's soccer. It would be called football in France, therefore I used that term.  
_

 _Thank you so much for your patience. School gets in the way, and other fics demand my attention as well. I really super appreciate all the favorites and follows and reviews - y'all're the best.  
_

 _I hope this chapter was worth waiting for. It's one of my longer ones, so there's that. It was supposed to have Ladrien, but obviously Adrien's inner turmoil sort of demanded this chapter's attention. Next chapter, though, I promise!_


	9. Elle Fout en l'Air un Peu

La Curiosité du Chat  
 _Chapitre 09 : Elle Fout en l'Air un Peu_  
KarmaHope

* * *

" _Merde_ ," Marinette cursed. "No, not now, not now!"

The sound of the crash carried easily on the warm evening breeze, drifting into Marinette's room through the windows she had propped open earlier that day. There was only one reason for such a sound to be heard in Paris, and she froze by her desk, the small Chinese knot keychains already clasped in her hand.

"Marinette!" Tikki piped, flying up in front of her face to catch her attention, "come on! We have to go!"

Marinette glanced down at the keychains in her palm before turning to look at the hatch which led back downstairs. "But," she protested weakly, "but Adrien … and Alya … and Nino … they're waiting for me! I can't just disappear like that!"

"You can say you lost the keychains!" Tikki suggested brightly. "They're so small, it's not unreasonable!"

"I … I suppose," Marinette sighed, slipping the souvenirs into her purse. "Alya's probably run off to investigate already, anyway. She knows I 'don't like the violence.'" She punctuated the last four words with air quotes, and Tikki giggled.

She sighed again. If she was being honest with herself, there was never truly any decision to be made. "Fine. I lost the keychains. Sorry, everyone," she apologized halfheartedly. "Tikki, transform me!"

A flash of light later, Ladybug clambered up to Marinette's balcony, staying low so that if her friends were still at the park, they wouldn't see her. A quick inspection, however, told her that all three of them were no longer there. She didn't know quite what to feel about the development. Relief, because they weren't waiting for her? Betrayal, because they had all run off without her? Concern, because they were surely running straight for danger?

She hastily crossed 'betrayal' off the list, leaving her with only 'relief' and 'concern,' two entirely conflicting emotions that left her somewhat off-balance. Taking a deep breath, she hurled her yoyo and took off swinging through the streets of Paris. She and Chat would need to defeat this particular akuma quickly, so that she could return to her friends before they got suspicious.

Actually, no, she corrected herself. They needed to defeat this akuma quickly so that her friends wouldn't get _hurt_. Although Alya had been slightly more cautious since that first time she had gotten too close and had subsequently been trapped underneath a car, the girl was still impulsive when it came to her superheroes and journalism.

Ladybug landed on a roof overlooking the site of the akuma attack. Although it was dark, the streetlights illuminated the view beneath her. For several moments, however, she just stood there, unable to comprehend exactly what was happening.

The intersection was full of cats.

And by 'full of cats,' she meant that it was actually hard to see the pavement beneath the sea of different-colored fur. Were there even this many cats in Paris? She wasn't sure, but the weirdest thing about it all was that the cats all moved together, in the same direction. It wasn't absolute chaos, as one would expect a gathering of a couple hundred cats would be. No, it was actually … _organized_.

It was so unnatural, it sent chills down her spine.

"First birds, then dogs, and now cats," she murmured, searching for the akumatized villain she knew had to be in the area. "What will be next, rats? Bugs?" she shuddered at the thought. "And speaking of cats, where's mine?"

Chat Noir was suspiciously absent. Pulling out her yoyo communicator, she tried to contact him, but the line was dead. She snapped her yoyo shut with a huff. Fine, she thought. It wasn't the first time he'd been late, and she could take care of herself until he got there.

Her gaze caught upon a cackling young girl sitting atop one of the cars that had stalled in the road, unable to move through the swarm of cats which surrounded it. She looked to be somewhere between ten and twelve, and the outrageous furs she wore were further evidence of akumatization. She held a fluffy white cat cradled in her arms, and in between cackles, she cooed to it softly.

Okay, Ladybug assessed. Right now, it looked as if no one was in actual danger. The cats were an annoyance, and a large one at that, but they weren't attacking anyone; at least, not yet. She didn't understand it, but she wasn't about to question it while it worked to her advantage. Everyone stayed in their cars – after nearly a year of akuma attacks, the people of Paris were used to occurrences like these. Taking a deep breath, she jumped to a different rooftop to get a better vantage point.

Oh, shoot.

There were her friends, Alya taking the lead with Nino and Adrien trailing along behind her. She needed to get them out of there before everything went to pieces. At the moment, the girl seemed perfectly happy just stalling traffic, but Ladybug suspected as soon as she caught sight of either her or Chat, things would quickly become … hairy.

Cautious to keep out of the girl's line of sight, Ladybug jumped back over the roofs until she could drop down behind the trio, careful to stay light on her feet. She crept up behind her friends until she was within whispering distance.

"Hey."

All three of them whirled around in shock, Alya with her phone still clasped in her hands and recording. Adrien gaped wordlessly, but Nino … oh, Nino.

"Whoa, Ladybug!" he exclaimed. Loudly. Adrien broke out of his stupor to dig an elbow into his friend's side, but the damage had already been done.

Ladybug winced. "Shh," she said hastily. "Keep it down! She's gonna –" It was too late. Almost as one, all of the cats in the intersection turned to look at them, their eyes glinting eerily in the glow of the streetlights.

Ladybug cursed under her breath. "Run!" she exclaimed, hurling her yoyo past them to knock one of the nearest cats aside as it pounced. Alya hesitated, wanting to get clear video for the Ladyblog, but Nino grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her along behind him.

Curiously, Adrien hesitated as well, glancing around frantically as if searching for … something. "Ladybug –"

"What are you doing?" she demanded in a tone of voice she would never take with Adrien as Marinette. "Run!"

It was only when she pushed him as she turned to run herself that he finally got the memo and started moving his feet. Had there not been an army of angry cats chasing them, she might have taken a moment to freak out about the fact that _she had just touched Adrien Agreste_ ; however, there was an army of angry cats chasing them, and so she did not.

Alya and Nino were up ahead, removed from the swarm of cats that nipped and scratched and pounced at their heels. "It's strange," Ladybug heard Adrien murmur. "Cats are much faster than humans are – why are we outrunning them?"

A black cat darted in front of them. In the dark, it was nearly invisible, and Adrien tripped over it. Ladybug managed to catch him before he lost his balance entirely, but that minor hesitation was enough. More and more of the cats followed the first's lead, and not seconds passed before the two could no longer move for the number of angry cats surrounding them on all sides.

"We're not outrunning them," Ladybug realized, standing back-to-back with her companion. "They're herding us. Me, I mean." Adrien had just gotten caught up in the middle of it, having been with her at the time, and she doubted the cats – the _villain_ , because surely she was the one who was controlling the cats – would just let him go now. Not when he could be used as a bargaining chip.

She took a deep breath as she palmed her yoyo. "Okay, fine. We're doing this the hard way, then." She paused. "Uhm, A-Adrien, I need you to grab onto me."

"W-what?"

"The- the only way out is up," she said. "And I can't just leave you here."

"What about the others?" Adrien asked, although he was already hesitantly slinging an arm around her shoulders. Ladybug tried real hard not to let his touch get to her. She really did. Thankfully, it was dark enough that he wouldn't be able to see the blush on her face.

"They'll be fine," she said, glancing over to where she had last seen them. They were out of sight now, having turned a corner or ducked inside a building. "It's only me that Hawkmoth wants."

Well, her and Chat Noir, _who still hadn't showed up yet_. Where _was_ that boy?

"Okay," she said as she took advantage of the moment to wrap her arm around Adrien's waist. "In three, two," – she tossed the yoyo – "one!"

To his credit, Adrien didn't scream as they launched into the air. He simply grabbed onto her tighter, his other arm coming up to her shoulder as well. And, well, if she went a little farther away than was strictly necessary, then who could blame her?

They landed a little heavier on the roof than she was used to, but that was to be expected with the extra weight she carried. To her relief, Adrien didn't try to put his feet down until after she had landed. It was something that she had chided Chat about time and time again, not wanting any injuries resulting from an uncoordinated impact, but she had completely forgotten to warn Adrien about it until it was too late.

Thankfully, she hadn't needed to.

With a deep sigh, she expected him to let go as soon as he caught his footing, but … he didn't. Slowly, she relaxed into his embrace, knowing she shouldn't. Knowing this would only make things so much harder for Marinette. But he was _there_ , and this was the closest she'd ever been to him, and so she forgot about the akuma and the cats in the streets for a few moments as she stood there. In reality, only a few seconds passed before they separated, but it felt like so much longer.

"I'm sorry," Adrien murmured as he stepped back.

"Sorry?" Ladybug asked, trying desperately to keep her cool. "What for?"

"Uhm. For, uh, not running when you asked me to. And for Nino giving you away like that."

She smiled gently, shaking her head. "Don't worry about it," she said. "We got out, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Adrien said, looking back in the direction from whence they'd come. "Wow, you can really see pretty far from up here."

Ladybug giggled. "You should try standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower someday. It's breathtaking."

Adrien grinned at her. "Maybe someday I will."

Was he _flirting_ with her? Abort! Abort!

"Maybe. For now, though, I have an akuma to defeat." She turned to the edge of the roof and then, before she could stop herself, tossed over her shoulder, "See you later, handsome boy."

And then she jumped off the roof in order to avoid the fallout from such a statement. She muttered a litany of curses under her breath as she swung back to the site of the akuma attack, completely forgetting that in doing so she had just left Adrien Agreste – her crush – _stranded on some random roof in Paris_ until it was far too late.

Hopefully there was a fire escape, because she wasn't about to sacrifice what was left of her dignity by going back now.

And where was that goddamn cat of hers?

* * *

Minutes later found her perched on the same roof she'd been on before she'd hared off to 'rescue' her friends. The cats below, while no longer hostile, were definitely antsier than they were before her earlier intervention. The street was a roiling mass of fur, the akumatized villain still sitting happily atop one of the stalled cars.

She took a deep breath. She'd been stalling, hoping Chat would show up, but at this point she couldn't put it off any longer. It was getting late, and her friends would start getting suspicious sooner rather than later. Well, except maybe Adrien, but for once, she didn't want to think about him.

"Hey!" she shouted, trying desperately to get her head into the fight that was about to take place. "You know, these people _do_ actually have someplace they need to be!"

Again, the cats all turned as one to look at her. She just couldn't get over how _freaky_ that was.

"No!" the girl cried, hugging her cat close. "Those cars are evil! They should never move again! I'll only let them go if you give me your miraculous!"

Ladybug resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was beginning to put it all together, and if she had to make a guess, it would be that her cat – possibly the one in her arms – had been hit. So then where would the akuma be? She didn't want to jump down into the fray before she had it figured out, because she knew that things could get … _hairy_ , rather quickly.

"What's up?" a familiar voice cut into her thoughts from behind her. "Cat got your tongue?"

Ladybug whirled on her heel to come face-to-face with her partner, a knot loosening in her chest that she hadn't been aware of. "There you are!" she exclaimed. "What took you so long?"

"I got … held up," Chat Noir said contritely. "I was with friends, and I couldn't get away."

Ladybug shook her head. "It doesn't really matter," she said, turning back to the street. "I had to rescue some idiot friends of mine, so you haven't missed much."

With her back turned, she didn't notice the way Chat froze for a moment before cautiously joining her at the edge. "Well, are we gonna take care of this akuma or what?"

"Yeah, we are," she said. "I think the akuma's in Fifi's collar. Ready to do some catnapping?"

"I'm always ready for a nap, but I'm guessing this comes first."

This time, Ladybug actually rolled her eyes. "Come on, Kitty. Let's go."

Together, they defeated the akuma pretty quickly. Taking the girl's cat was much easier than either of them had thought it would be. Chat Noir had gotten close, reached for it, and it had jumped straight into his arms – much to its owner's consternation.

As soon as the akuma had been purified, the mass of cats in the street dispersed in a heartbeat. Most of them dispersed. There were a couple catfights, but Chat was able to break those up pretty quickly while Ladybug looked on and laughed. Who'd have thought that Chat Noir would _actually_ have a magic touch with cats?

Her earrings beeped, and with the cutting sound came the horrifying realization that Adrien was likely still stranded on that roof she'd left him on. Even more alarming was the fact that she couldn't remember exactly which roof that was!

"Sorry, Chat," she yelped. "I gotta go, uh, take care of some things."

Her partner looked at her curiously. "Okay," he said. "Are you all right, Ladybug?"

"Yeah," she said hastily, though touched by his concern for her. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" A burst of nervous laughter escaped her. "I'll see you later, Chat."

"O-okay."

They stared at each other awkwardly for several moments before Ladybug finally tore her gaze from his and leapt over the street to the next rooftop. She didn't look back. Why was she making such a mess of her relationships with the two boys that meant the most to her tonight?

Wait. That wasn't entirely true.

She was forgetting that it was still the same night of Alya's party at her place, and that she had actually managed to talk to Adrien as Marinette. That she had been comfortable enough around him to push him during Mario Kart.

It was only Ladybug who had managed to screw everything up, and wasn't that an ironic twist of fate?

When she reached the rooftop where she _thought_ she had left Adrien, however, there was no one. A quick inspection of the surrounding rooftops yielded no sight of the blond teenager, either, and Ladybug sagged like the cord holding her up had just been cut.

She was about ninety percent sure this was the direction in which they had gone, and so that could only mean that Adrien had found a way down off the roof. She had no time to check for a door or a fire escape, but she supposed it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that he had gotten down.

Her earrings beeped again, reminding her that she needed to get back to her house before the others returned. Actually … it was probably too late for that. Throwing her yoyo, she managed to make it most of the way back to the bakery before the last spots on her earrings winked out. Catching Tikki, she slid the exhausted kwami into her purse as she rounded the corner to come face-to-face with her friends. Adrien still seemed slightly out of breath, and the guilt kicked her in the stomach.

"Mari?" Alya asked. "Where were you?"

"I, uh, went looking for you!" Marinette exclaimed. "I came out, and none of you were here, so … yeah. What happened?"

"There was an akuma attack!" Alya exclaimed. "There was this girl, and _so_ many cats in the street! I didn't get anything good, though. Ladybug showed up and the cats started attacking, so we ran."

"Yeah!" Nino enthused. "But Adrien, dude, you got separated from us! What happened to _you?_ "

Adrien shrugged. "Nothing, really. Ladybug got me out, and I came back here. It just took me a little longer because there were still so many cats in the streets."

He was lying, Marinette realized. Why was he lying, and why was he looking at her like that? It was a question she didn't really want to know the answer to, and so she changed the subject.

"Anyway! I have your souvenirs from China, if you'd like them!"

"Oh, yeah! I completely forgot about those!" Alya said. "Come on, show us!"

Marinette silently apologized to Tikki, who would have to wait a little while longer before she could eat. As she was drawn back into her civilian life, Marinette decided that she, as Ladybug, would pay Adrien a visit later that night.

After all, she had an apology to make.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _Sorry for the horribly long delay. Writers' block, school, art, and other fics demanding my attention all ganged up on me. I hope this chapter was worth the wait! Thank you so much for your continued support._

 _Speaking of other fics and art, I recently drew some art for my other fic_ Fermeture _. If you'd like to see it, it's posted on my tumblr at karmahope . tumblr post / 141570902291_


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